Roulette
by Dark Puck
Summary: After the theft of her family's ostrichhorse, Song tries to track down the men responsible, and stumbles across a fragile boy in need of help, touching off a chain of events that leads Song to the capital of the Fire Nation as the final battle is ending.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Roulette  
**Fandom:** Avatar: The Last Airbender  
**Rating:** PG-16 (language and violence)  
**Genre:** AU, Action, Intrigue, Romance (in that the story focuses largely on character interactions)  
**Co-Author:** Eleanor  
**Summary:** After the theft of her family's ostrich-horse, Song decides to track down the two men responsible, and stumbles across a fragile boy in dire need of help. This chance meeting touches off a chain of events that leads Song to the capital of the Fire Nation just as the final battle is ending, where her skills as a doctor are greatly needed. Just when it seems as though life is settling into a comfortable routine, however, the Dai Li start causing trouble -- and nobody knows who is pulling the strings...  
**Warnings:** Longfic is long, and will eventually span twenty years or so. Contains a Xanatos Roulette. OCs abound. Noncanon pairings. Deviates from canon before _Sozin's Comet_.

* * *

Song hoisted her bag a bit higher on her shoulders and sighed. Maybe she shouldn't have gone chasing after Mushi and Lee before her mother could purchase a new ostrich-horse, but the young doctor wasn't entirely certain herself if she was chasing them to take the animal back, or to warn them that they were being tracked. The very day after Song had witnessed their theft, soldiers had passed through the area with a wanted poster bearing painted likenesses of the two men.

Fortunately, Song knew this area much better than the soldiers, and had passed by them easily — and undetected, thank the spirits. With any luck, she might even be able to catch up with the two fugitives. Thus preoccupied, she didn't notice the small, skeletal boy curled up under a tree until she almost tripped over him.

"Oh!" she gasped, startled. She carefully stepped over him and almost headed back on her way — then stopped and turned back around to look at him closely. He curled a little tighter in on himself, whimpering faintly. Song bit her lip, considering her options, then knelt beside him and dug in her pack. After a moment, she pulled out a blanket and draped it over the small boy.

He twitched a little, whimpering again, then jerked awake with a faint gasp. Eyes widening, he scrambled away from her. The doctor remained where she was. "Are you all right?" she asked him softly.

He nodded, trembling a little, and Song gave him a gentle smile. "Good."

After a long moment of wary staring, he uncurled a little, folded up the blanket delicately and held it out to her, careful to keep it between the two of them.

"You're not cold?" she asked him now.

He hesitated a minute, then shrugged one shoulder.

"I don't need it right now, you know," Song told him, smiling still.

Still, he hesitated, not moving either himself or the blanket.

"It's all right. Really."

After a minute, he pulled the blanket close to him, hugging it almost like a teddy bear. Song's smile grew wider, and she took care not to betray any of the anger she felt surging inside her. Clearly, that child had been badly abused in the past. He gave her a hesitant, timid, frightened half-smile in return.

"Are you hungry?" she asked, drawing her bag in front of her. Mushi and Lee had been utterly forgotten in light of this small scrap of humanity.

He shook his head, obviously lying.

"Are you sure? I brought too much with me, and I'm sure some of it will go bad if it isn't eaten."

He hesitated again, taking his eyes off her for a brief instant to flash a longing glance at her bag. Shaking her head in amusement — she had to be amused, or else she would get angry and scare him off — Song dug out some bread and offered it to him. "Here. Eat slowly, all right?" He stared at it for a few seconds, then slowly reached out for it. As soon as she let go, he devoured it in seconds.

She very carefully did _not_ frown, but she couldn't help but worry. When had he eaten last? When he was done, he curled up a little tighter around the blanket. Keeping a careful eye on him, Song ate a bit of bread herself.

After a few minutes, he whimpered faintly and crawled a little ways away, where he threw up all the bread he'd eaten. Song sighed, unsurprised, and checked her water container before rising and kneeling by him. "Here," she said gently. "Drink some water. I'll clean up."

He pulled away a little, but accepted the water. Song backed up and watched him. "That's why I advised you to eat slowly," she told him, not unkindly. "Will you listen to me next time?"

He nodded, staring at the ground and trembling again.

Oops. She injected a bit more pleasantness into her tone. "Good. You're far too thin already. You can't afford to lose any more weight."

He just nodded again, not looking up. He still seemed a little afraid.

"What's your name?"

"Y-Yì Suì," he whispered.

"My name is Song," she replied, giving him another smile. "It's nice to meet you, Yì Suì."

He nodded again, with another tentative little smile. Song rose then and began to make camp, taking care not to get too close to and spook the boy. A few hours after she'd first found him, she gave him a smaller amount of bread, cautioning him to take it slowly this time.

This time, he obeyed her, eating very slowly and only about half of what she'd given him — and this time he didn't get ill. Encouraged, Song kept to this schedule, feeding him a little bit every few hours.

Slowly, slowly, he relaxed a little, though he wouldn't give her any more information other than his name, and tensed when she got within a few feet of him. Because of this, Song made certain to always keep a distance between them, even when trying to convince him to sleep and to bathe.

Sleeping he was willing to do, though restlessly, twitching and whimpering, but he balked when she tried to get him to bathe, panicking, practically hyperventilating. After the first few times, Song suggested he keep his clothes on for it. When presented with this option, he was less unwilling to try, and Song took to bathing with her clothes on as well, to comfort him. It was even harder to hide her anger from Yì Suì, as she'd come to realise that the boy hadn't just been abused — he'd been _sexually_ abused. All she wanted now was to track down whoever had done that to him and forcefeed them enough poison to waste the entire Fire Nation navy.

As the days went by, he even started talking to her a little, though never initiating conversation. Song was very heartened by this, and began to travel again, keeping to a pace that wouldn't exhaust him. She'd talk to him while they walked, though she took care to avoid the subjects that made him upset.

He stuck with her, seeming to be unwilling to go off alone. Or perhaps just because she fed him and he didn't have any idea how to find food on his own. Whatever the reason, Song was glad to take care of him. She suspected that he might have starved to death had she not found him.

Of course, having a travelling companion meant she had to stop in villages more often, to ply her trade and to pick up supplies. On these occasions, she would find a hiding place for the boy if he didn't want to go in with her.

One such afternoon, a little less than three weeks after she'd found him, Yì Suì wasn't there when she got back.

Song frowned. "Yì Suì?" A bit worried, she began to look for him. He wasn't anywhere to be found, but there was a very obvious trail of broken branches not far from where he'd hidden. Brown eyes narrowed, and the doctor followed that trail. The trail was heading back the way they'd came, towards the city. Hissing something impolite, she moved slightly off of it to hide her presence, but following, hoping to find Yì Suì soon.

The trail eventually led to a small campsite, with three large, bulky men gathered around a campfire, Yì Suì tied up and unconscious near them. Careful to remain out of sight, Song pondered her next move. She knew she wasn't a fighter, and if they caught her… of course, if they did she could simply poison them — but was it really worth the risk? She had the herbs on her person that would incapacitate them, but if she never got a chance to use them…

None of the men seemed to notice her presence, and, after a few more minutes of conversation, they set watches and two of the men went to sleep. The third stayed awake, keeping an eye out for wild animals, most likely.

Song groped for and found a rock, which she promptly hurled to one side of the camp. What kind of men was she dealing with? Best to find out. The man looked up, and lumbered over to see what had made the noise.

Lightning-quick, Song plunged from her cover and grabbed Yì Suì, cradling the too-small boy against her chest. "Hey!" the man shouted, turning and seeing her. Song gasped and fled, but quickly realised she wouldn't be fast enough to get away. She kept running nonetheless; there was a _slim_ chance that she might possibly be able to—

She was tackled from behind, and barely managed to twist and land heavily on her left arm rather than on the child in her arms. The impact drove the breath from her lungs, and she curled up around Yì Suì, gasping.

The too-small boy didn't wake up — which, given his sensitivity about his personal space, was unusual.

The man picked her and Yì Suì up and carried them both back to his camp, where he tied the young doctor up and put her on the other side of the camp, across the fire from her charge. Snarling, Song struggled against her bindings and used every word and phrase she'd ever learned by treating soldiers to loudly swear at her captor.

"Shut up," he said shortly, backhanding her, and then waking up his companions.

Song's reply was just as short and much ruder.

"What is it?" the first of the two men he woke up asked. The man who'd caught Song explained, briefly.

"What do we do with her? Clients don't want girls."

_That_ made Song freeze. She was angry, and just a little afraid now that she, too, was in need of rescue. And it was well and fine that the clients didn't want girls, but what of those three?

"Well, we can't just let her go. She might get the police. We'll just hafta keep her with us, 'til we figure out somewhere to put her."

Song growled — and then quieted suddenly as her mind began to race. These men didn't seem to be all that bright. Perhaps, if she played her cards right, she'd get a second chance…

Her chance came two days later. Song had realised early on that the men had been drugging Yì Suì so that he wouldn't wriggle free and escape — and also because they found his near-constant terror annoying. This, however, meant that they had to trade off carrying him, which of course strained their muscles. Noting this, the doctor, who had been quite well behaved since her initial outburst on being captured, sweetly said, "Are you sore? If you like, I could make you some tea that would help…"

"Sure, all right," one of them said, untying her.

Song went about the innocent tasks that accompanied making tea — and when they weren't looking, she substituted azalea leaves for tea leaves.

The tea took very little time to take effect. Less than an hour later, the three men were clutching their stomachs and groaning. Two of them vomited. Song just shook her head at their stupidity — first at trusting her not to slip them anything, and second, not tying her up again after she made the tea. She rooted through their supplies quickly, hobbled them hand and foot after taking what she needed, and carefully picked Yì Suì up. "Idiots," was her parting shot.

Yì Suì remained unconscious — they'd drugged him again just before getting sick. Song was not above using this to her own advantage, and set a very bruising pace as she made for the nearest village she could possibly get to.

As soon as they got there, they nearly ran into a middle-aged woman apparently finishing up her shopping. "What happened? Are you two all right?"

Song looked her over quickly and decided she had to take a chance and trust her. "I was travelling with this boy — men took him when I went to town for food. Then they took me when I tried to save him." She smiled slightly. "They didn't know I have doctor's training. I left them four miles southeast — they'll be sick for a day."

The woman nodded. "Here, why don't I take you two to my place, and then I'll go alert the police?"

Song hesitated. "I… Yì Suì is very timid, I don't know if…" She looked up into the woman's face and froze. She quickly got control of herself, hoping it hadn't been too noticeable.

"I live alone," the woman assured her, seeming not to notice her reaction.

"Very well," Song said after a moment. "But he's likely to wake up terrified."

The woman nodded. "All right." She led Song to a small house near the centre of town. "The bedroom's in the back, behind the shop, second door on the right."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Song, bowing politely, if somewhat awkwardly with Yì Suì in her arms. Following the directions, she carried Yì Suì into the bedroom. She hesitated before entering — what if the very fact that it was a bedroom made Yì Suì panic? She'd have to stay with him.

The bedroom was very ordinary, if smallish. The only decoration was a small painting, turned around so the back of the frame was facing out into the room. Gently, Song laid Yì Suì down on the bed, then lowered her supplies to the floor. She debated with herself internally, then went to look at the picture. The odds were she'd just made a mistake, but it was really better to be certain…

It was a family portrait, of a man, his wife, and their son and daughter. The man and woman were seated, the children kneeling at their feet. All four wore elaborate clothing in styles she didn't recognize, meaning it was likely that it was some type of court dress.

The woman was the one who owned the house.

And one of the children was Lee. Younger, yes, and happier, too — and without the horrific scar. It wasn't easy to tell, but the hints were there if one looked.

Taking a very careful breath, Song turned the portrait back around. This wasn't any of her business. She shouldn't have looked. Certainly she wouldn't tell this woman her son was an ungrateful thief — if Lee was, in fact, ungrateful. She was more and more starting to believe the older boy had been desperate.

Sighing, Song moved to look after Yì Suì, and paused. If Lee was the woman's son… then who was Mushi?

Around this time, the boy was starting to come around. As she'd suspected, he panicked upon finding himself in a strange bedroom.

Song quickly moved into his line of sight. "Yì Suì, it's all right. It's just me. We're safe here." He whimpered a little, and tried to scramble off of the bed. Finding that he couldn't move very well, due to the not-quite-completely worn-off drug, he panicked further.

Afraid he'd hurt himself, Song took him by the arms and helped him get off the bed. "It's okay," she repeated, letting go of him once she got him sitting. "A woman is sheltering us. Nobody is going to hurt you, I promise."

He whimpered again, tensing further at the brief contact, then curled up tight as he could, shaking. Biting her lip, Song drew a blanket from the bed and draped it on him, trying not to touch him again. "It's all right," she said a third time.

After a frighteningly long few minutes, he calmed down, his breathing slowly returning to a normal rate. The doctor calmed down in turn and briefly wished she'd been able to use belladonna instead of azalea.

A few moments after that, the woman returned, tapping on the doorframe rather than entering or allowing herself to be seen and panicking the child further. Song rose and moved to the door. "Yes?"

"The police want you to describe the men, just to be certain," she said, softly.

"All right. I'll do that. Just a moment?"

"Yes?"

Song returned to Yì Suì and gently spoke his name. He looked up, but didn't otherwise move or acknowledge her. "I have to go for a little bit," she told him. "I'll be back as quickly as I can, but the police need to ask me a few things."

He nodded a little, then curled up again.

The doctor then moved back to the woman. "All right. I'm ready."

The woman led her back out into the front room, where a very young man — just barely of age — in a police uniform waited. Song bowed politely, only then realising that some of the blows she'd received in her first day with the men had certainly bruised over by now.

The policeman bowed back. "Could you please explain what happened, miss...?"

"Song. My name is Song." Carefully she described her initial encounter with first Yì Suì, and then the men who had kidnapped him; she winced as she included her first foolhardy attempt at rescue but held her head high as she admitted to poisoning the men.

The policeman took careful notes, asked a couple of clarifying question, then bowed, thanked her and the woman — whom he called 'Bian' — for their time, then left. Once he had, Song returned to watch over Yì Suì, quietly hating the men who had done that to him. Forget Lee and Mushi's petty theft. This was a far, far worse crime.

Bian remained in the shop in the front room until it closed in the evening, then offered her two guests food. Song accepted the food with thanks, and offered to help Bian clean up shop in return for her generosity.

"If you like," she said, smiling slightly. "I didn't catch your name."

"It's Song," the girl replied with an answering smile. "And my friend is Yì Suì."

"A pleasure to meet you, though I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances," she said, bowing. "I am called Bian."

"Thank you for your help, Madam Bian," Song answered, bowing in return.

"Of course." She got an odd, sad, faraway look in her eyes for a moment, then shook her head and returned to her work.

Song frowned. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Just..." Bian gave her a weary smile. "Your friend isn't much older than my son was when I lost him."

"Oh. I'm sorry," the girl said softly.

"It's not your fault. It's mine."

"Still. No mother should be separated from her child…" Well, okay, there were many many exceptions to this, but Song was trying to comfort Bian.

She shrugged, fluidly. "What did you use to poison the men?"

"Azalea. I couldn't find anything else."

Bian nodded. "Good choice."

Song sighed. "I wish I'd had belladonna."

She arched an eyebrow. "If you'd killed them, you would regret it for the rest of your life. It's not worth it."

"Maybe," said the girl softly.

"It's not. Taking a life..." Bian shook her head. "No matter what it's worth. No matter how terrible your victim. It's regrettable."

Song looked over at her. "You sound like you're talking from experience."

Bian smiled a little bitterly. "Why do you think I had to leave my son behind?"

Song's eyes went wide.

"I took my father-in-law's life in exchange for a promise for my son's safety." Now she sounded truly bitter.

"Wh-what's his name?" Song managed to get out. "Y-your son, I mean." Could it be that Lee…?

"I can't tell you."

"…all right," conceded the doctor. It wasn't any of her business anyway.

Bian bowed her head a moment, then returned to her task at hand. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. I have the room, and I could teach you more about herbs, if you want to learn."

"That would be wonderful," Song said. "I… I'm afraid to travel much further with Yì Suì. If this happened once, it could happen again."

She nodded. "That's understandable."

"Thank you again, Madam Bian."

She bowed slightly. "Of course." She returned to her cleanup. Song joined in, wondering if she ought to tell the older woman that she'd seen her son. Bian made no further conversation, choosing to work in silence or wait for Song to make an overture. After a quarter-hour, Song made up her mind.

"I… I think I might have met your son a month ago."

Bian froze. "You're sure?"

"I… I'm reasonably sure," Song said. "I… the boy I met looks like you."

"Did he have a scar, on the left side of his face, going from the side of his nose out over his ear?"

"Yes."

Bian laughed bitterly. "That's how well my husband keeps his promises."

"Then the man he was travelling _wasn't_ his father."

"No. His uncle, my brother-in-law."

"I see." Song considered this from where she was kneeling on the floor. One hand drifted absently to rub her scarred leg.

Bian fell silent as well.

"I… he… he seemed to be healthy when I saw him," Song offered, a little lamely. "Very angry, though."

"Who could blame him? Disfigured, disowned, and now..." Bian trailed off.

"A fugitive," Song supplied quietly.

"Yes."

The girl got to her feet and finished helping Bian with the chores.

The woman made no further conversation that night, and once they were finished, Song returned to Yì Suì. The boy was curled up in a corner, asleep, twitching and whimpering. The doctor took a seat beside him and wished she could comfort him.


	2. Chapter 2

The next several weeks passed quietly. Towards the end of spring, shortly before they received word that the great city of Ba Sing Se had been captured, Song left to go to Yì Suì's home city, where she shut down the brothel Yì Suì had come from.

Again after her return, the first part of the summer passed with no events, not in their little town. Bian taught Yì Suì how to read, and it seemed almost as if she were trying to make up for her failure to protect her own son by protecting this boy.

Two weeks after the eclipse, someone knocked on the door in the middle of the night, ending their quiet respite. Song was the lightest sleeper, and thus she got up to answer it.

At the door was a figure, far too heavily cloaked despite the season for her to even determine its sex. The girl went instantly on her guard. "Can I help you?"

"I need to speak with Madam Bian," the figure said, in a low whisper.

"Bian is sleeping," Song replied. "Perhaps you could try again later?"

"Of course." The figure bowed, and disappeared into the night.

Song watched him go, then shut and locked the door.

He was back the next night, and again Song was the one to answer the door. She was even more wary than before — why come at night, and so heavily cloaked? "Would you like me to take a message?"

"No. I apologize for bothering you." He bowed, and left, just as before.

When the third night brought another repeat of the same performance, Song was starting to become afraid. Against her better judgement, she told Bian about the cloaked man.

The woman frowned, and waited up to meet him. When the man appeared that night, he asked to speak with her privately. Eyes narrowed, she asked Song to leave the room. "Of course," said Song, bowing. She moved to the room she shared with Yì Suì and promptly had an internal argument with herself on whether or not she should listen in.

Given the tone of the voices drifting through the walls, muffled though they were, she could tell Bian and the stranger were arguing. Song hesitated, then against her better judgement, pressed her ear to the door.

"…pressure him into anything!" Bian was saying.

"I'm not asking you to," the man — it sounded like Mushi! — replied. "All I'm asking is that you come back with me. _Talk_ to him. He stopped listening to me, maybe you can—"

"_I_ have faith in him. He'll make the right choice."

"He didn't before."

"Did you really expect him to? He wasn't thinking like the rational hero you need him to be! He was a scared _child_ who just wanted to go home!"

Were they talking about Lee? What was going on? Song hesitated, then backed away from the door and sat beside the sleeping Yì Suì.

He wasn't asleep for long. "Wh-what's going on?" he whispered, upon waking and hearing the arguing.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "We should be fine, though."

"Okay…"

Song sighed and wished she could hug and comfort him, but she dared not touch the skittish boy.

A few minutes later, the argument drew to some sort of close, and the door opened and shut, likely indicating that Mushi had left.

"You see? It's all right."

He nodded, though he didn't look quite convinced.

"I'll go check on Bian to be sure."

"Okay."

Song got up and slipped into the front room.

Bian, looking a little shaken, was standing at a table, gripping it so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Bian?"

The older woman looked up. She'd been crying.

Dismayed, Song moved to her side. "Bian, what is it?"

She just shook her head. "He'll probably come try again to convince me tomorrow. I… he may talk me around. I don't know. He's…" She buried her head in her hands.

"What did he want?" the doctor asked.

"He wants me to go back home, and to try and talk my son into…doing something, which he is reluctant to do for a long list of very good reasons, but we need him to do it."

"…and what is that?"

She shook her head again. "It needs to be his choice. I'm _not_ going to pressure him into anything, he's been through enough already."

"Pressure him into what?"

"Anything. Particularly not what my brother-in-law needs him to do, it's… very risky."

"Bian… what is going on? Why is Lee so important?" Song persisted.

Bian was silent for a long moment. "It's… complicated. And secret. You have to understand, if people learn I'm his mother…"

Song said nothing, just looked at her.

"…Bian's not my real name," the older woman finally said, after studying Song for a long moment.

"It's not?"

"No."

Song hesitated, then took a seat beside the older woman. "You don't have to tell me."

She shook her head. "It's all right, it's just…I could be arrested. Just for being me."

The girl looked horror-struck. "What— _why_?"

Bian smiled wryly. "I'm the Firelord's wife."

Brown eyes went wide at this revelation. If Bian was Lady Ursa… then Mushi was… and _Lee_…

_We were robbed by the crown prince of the Fire Nation_.

"My brother-in-law needs him to turn traitor. For as long a list of reasons as why my son doesn't want to."

"But… _why_? I don't understand… what's going on?"

Bian — Ursa — hesitated a long moment, then explained, briefly, about her son's bloodline. "Think of the closing moments to the war like a set of scales. Without my son, they're pretty much even, so whichever side he lands on will claim victory."

"I see," Song said quietly.

"For obvious reasons, my son is reluctant. He _just_ won the right to go home, after three years in exile. And he's not even seventeen yet. He's unwilling to risk losing it. But I think he'll come around on his own, and soon, in time. Iroh… is less certain."

"So… what will you do?"

"I don't know," she replied, softly.

Song drew her knees to her chest and absently rubbed her leg.

Ursa said nothing for a long moment. "I think I'm going to try and go to bed. If he comes back, wake me up."

"I will," the girl promised.

The old man didn't return that night. It was probable he was planning on doing so the next, but, before he could, someone else knocked on the door.

Bian was already awake, and stopped Song before she could answer the door. "Don't, yet. I need to go out the back, someone overheard us last night. You're a convincing liar, you should be able to persuade them you know nothing."

Who had overheard? And how? Song nodded. "Right. Is there anything I should tell them?"

She shook her head. "Just convince them you don't know who I really am."

"Okay. Hurry." Song's hands were moving over her dress, wrinkling and rumpling it.

The knocking grew more insistent, and Bian slipped out the back door. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" called Song, injecting tiredness into her voice as she made her way to the front of the store. She pulled hair from her braid and messed with the back of it, then opened the door. the very picture of a sleepy teenager. "Store's closed," she said with a yawn. "Come back tomorrow."

It was the police, including the same man who took her statement when she first arrived. "We need to see Madam Bian."

Song yawned again, looking confused. "At this time of night?"

"Go get her. Now."

"All right, fine…" Song wandered towards Bian's room, running into a table with her hip on the way. "Ow… Bian? Bian, the police are here…"

The room was, as Song well knew, but had to pretend not to, empty.

Now she added puzzlement to her voice. "Bian? Bian, are you here?" She entered the room and started to look around. "Bian?" After a moment, she went back to the door. "She's not here…"

"…Someone must've warned her," the youngest officer said.

"Dammit. Stand aside," the apparent leader said, curtly, to Song. "We need to search the house."

"I don't understand," said Song, coming out of the room. "What's going on?"

"We're here to place her under arrest," the head officer told her.

The girl let her jaw drop and her eyes go wide. "What? _Why_?"

The policeman didn't answer her. He and his men swarmed into the little house, searching for any clue where she might have gone.

_I hope I gave Ursa enough time_, she thought as she backed into the door to the small room she shared with Yì Suì. _She wasn't kidding when she said they'd arrest her for who she was… it isn't _fair_. She's helped all these people for years_!

One of the policemen found her there. "Stand aside, we need to search in there, too."

Now Song balked. "Not unless you get a girl in," she said fiercely, glaring up at his eyes.

"We don't have any. _Move_."

"_Get_ one," Song insisted, staying where she was. Oh, spirits, had they forgotten about Yì Suì…

"…No, I don't think I will. Stand aside." Clearly, he thought she was hiding something.

"No!"

"I will ask you one more time. To _move_."

Song shook her head. The man glared at her, then simply picked her up and set her out of the way, before kicking the door in. "No!" cried Song, trying to pull him away before he terrified Yì Suì.

It was a bit late for that. The child had been woken up by all the shouting, and had screamed, terrified, when the door was broken down, then fainted.

"Yì Suì…" Song pushed past the policeman and knelt by the boy.

He didn't respond.

The policeman had the grace to stand there, awkwardly embarrassed, for a moment before continuing on into the room to begin his search. Song glared at him the entire time, holding Yì Suì in her arms and keeping her body between him and the man. She rather thought the angry tears were a nice touch, though the anger was certainly real enough. Jerk.

Not finding anything, he left the room to report back to his superior officer, who came to the doorway. "We need to speak with you both. Separately."

"_Hell_, no!" snapped Song. "Haven't you terrorised him enough!?"

"You were living with a dangerous fugitive," he replied simply.

"He's _ten_, and in my care. I will not consent unless you get a woman to talk to him."

"We have no women in our police force."

"Then _borrow one_," Song hissed.

"She wouldn't know the questions to ask. If you will step out into the shop, we can go ahead and begin questioning you, at least."

"I am not leaving him!"

"We have to question you alone, Miss Song. Step into the front room."

Song's eyes blazed as she considered her options. "All of you first."

"Fine." The men left the room, leaving one posted just outside the door.

Song rose to her feet and smoothed down her dress, then stalked outside the room and slammed the door shut behind her.

The police led her out into the front room. "How much of Madam Bian's personal life were you aware of?"

"Not much," Song said quietly. "She didn't like to speak of it."

"Does she have any allies you know of who might hide her?"

"No. As far as I know, she never left town."

"What about her family? Did she ever mention them?"

"Once," admitted Song. "She told me she was forced to leave her son behind when she came here, but nothing more."

"What did she say about her son?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing at all? Not even his name?" asked the one questioning her as another made notes.

"Nope. She never named him," Song answered honestly.

"What about his father? Did she ever mention him?"

"No. I was under the impression she left him, though." Song pretended to consider. "Maybe abuse."

"Did she ever tell you her true name?" the policeman asked, watching her eyes carefully.

Song didn't even blink. "No."

"Did she ever give you any indication she was anything other than what she pretended to be?"

"No, and I wasn't exactly _looking_ for it," Song snapped.

"No need to get testy," he snapped back. "You have no idea what you were living with."

"Bian took me and Yì Suì in and sheltered us after we were attacked on the road," replied the girl hotly. "She's given me work, helped Yì Suì recover from his traumas, fed us, clothed us, and helped us! _You_, on the other hand, have barged in here, behaved quite rudely, terrified Yì Suì and most likely undone all the work of the past few months, and all _with no explanation!_" She tossed her braid over her shoulder. "I have _every_ need to get testy."

"She is the Firelord's wife," he shot back. "As a member of the royal family, she's partly responsible for the war, to say nothing of how valuable a hostage she is."

Song stared at him, pretending to be shocked. After just enough time passed, she managed to get out, "Everyone knows that Lady Ursa is dead."

"Then how do you explain this?" He showed her the family portrait she'd seen her first day there.

The girl fell silent at that.

"You were living with that bitch. Face it."

Song shot to her feet. "Don't you _dare_ call her a bitch!"

"I'll call her whatever the hell I want, Miss Song," he snapped back.

"After everything she's done in this town? And for it?"

"She was probably a spy."

"Oh, yes, because it makes _perfect sense_ for the Firelord to send his _wife_ into a little rinkydink town in the Earth Kingdom to _spy_," Song snarled. "Ozai's a sociopath, not an incompetent fool."

"Then she was sent to foment rebellion."

"You're reaching," Song told him coldly.

"Am I?" he asked. "Am I really?"

"Yes. You are," the girl hissed. "For the exact same reason as previously stated: Ozai is a sociopath, not a fool."

"This isn't foolish. Sending someone into small towns across the Earth Kingdom to persuade people to revolt? Sounds like a damn good plan to me. And who _better_ than his wife? Women of the Fire Court are vipers, like the proverb says."

"Have you seen any _hint_ of rebellion in this town?"

"Just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it's not there."

Song crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at him. "If she had been here to formant rebellion, _why_ would she have taken in Yì Suì and I?"

"To improve her cover." He had an answer for everything. Not very good ones, but answers nonetheless.

"Or maybe she genuinely wanted to _help_ us."

He snorted with derisive disbelief.

"Not everyone in the Fire Nation is a war-mongering jingoist," Song insisted.

"Sure they are. Especially the nobles."

"You're wrong," said Song, her voice quiet now. "I've met two who aren't."

"Sure," he said, derisive again. "You've met nobles of the Fire Court who don't approve of the war."

"They were refugees," the girl answered.

"Right."

Her eyes narrowed. "I treated one of them for poisoning and spoke with the other."

"Of course you did."

Song's temper flared, and she quickly got it under control before she slapped the man. That would be a bad idea in a very large number of ways. "This conversation is over. Leave."

As if on cue, the man left to guard Yì Suì's door rejoined them in the main room. "Kid didn't know anything. Got that much out of him, he wasn't very coherent."

Song's eyes widened in rage. "You son of a _bitch_!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to address my officers with more respect than that, Miss Song," the police chief said, sharply.

She whirled on him. "He directly violated my rights as Yì Suì's guardian and spoke to him without my permission. This _despite_ a deep-set trauma brought on by him being _raped repeatedly_ by _men_ that _all of you_ knew about _because I told you about it_!"

"I'm sorry that was necessary, Miss Song, but we needed to make sure your stories coincided without you coaching him."

She slapped him.

He arrested her.

The girl was smart enough not to resist that arrest — she shouldn't have slapped him, but her anger had overtaken her common sense — and managed to make arrangements with a female neighbour to have Yì Suì cared for while she was in prison.

After three days and several more rounds of questioning, she was released, but told to leave the town, that she was no longer welcome there.

Her snarled reply indicated that she wouldn't be able to leave fast enough.

Unfortunately, as her neighbour told her, Yì Suì had curled up in a quivering ball under his blankets and refused to come out, even for food. This did slow the departure somewhat, as Song tried to convince him to come out so they could leave.

He finally crawled out when she told him they were leaving, though he kept one blanket — the first she'd given him — wrapped tightly around him so no one could see. Song smiled gently at him and finished packing the last of Bian's herbs. "Let's go. If we leave now we can be two miles out before the sun sets."

He nodded a little, not talking, and followed her out.


	3. Chapter 3

Song's temper had finally cooled after a couple days' travel with Yì Suì. It helped that she had to hide it from him. It did _not_ help that his retreating so far into his shell tended to make it flare.

Finally, on the fourth day, he said, "W-we should l-look f-for B-Bian."

She glanced at him, startled. "I… I think she might have gone home, Yì Suì. To her real home, I mean, not that village of ingrates."

"W-we should s-still try," he said, shrinking back a little from her gaze.

"You're right, we should," she said after a moment. "But it's across the ocean. And… I'm not too sure we would be welcomed there."

"Wh-why?"

"Because we're Earth Kingdom peasants," Song explained. "Bian is from the Fire Nation, who we're at war with."

"...Oh..."

Song looked westward. "…but if you want to…"

"W-we sh-should," he repeated.

The girl smiled at him. "Then we will."

He nodded, and relaxed a little.

Song promptly altered their course west, and after a number of weeks they came to a port. Things got difficult when she tried to buy passage to the Fire Nation, however. The only ship that was willing to take them across the ocean was obviously crewed entirely by male pirates. Song weighed her options — and then made the deal, desperately hoping that this wouldn't come back to haunt her.

On the trip across the ocean, the pirates mostly ignored their two passengers — something Yì Suì, in particular, was glad of. When they finally made landfall, he practically bolted off the ship. Song remained only long enough to pay the second part of their fare, and then followed the boy quickly. If she never had to spend that much time around pirates again, it would still be far too much.

Their trip across the Fire Nation itself proved very uneventful — they told those they passed they were siblings, and those who asked why Yì Suì was so shy were easily satisfied when told he'd been kidnapped.

They found no traces of Bian.

Song's worry only grew as they came closer to the capital.

It was Yì Suì who first noted the signs of battle. "S-song..." he whispered, staring at the burnt and cut-up trees just outside the capital city.

"Oh, my," whispered the doctor as she took it in.

A few cautious minutes later, Yì Suì screamed, finding a man in a green uniform and dark, flattened cone-shaped hat pinned to a tree by a broadsword through his throat.

"Get behind me!" Song ordered him, standing between the boy and the body.

Yì Suì was only too willing to obey.

And then a bloody hand reached up from the grass and clamped around Song's ankle.

The doctor almost screamed, but pulled free and stumbled away, turning to see who had grabbed her. It proved to be a fifteen-year-old girl, covered in blood, with a broadsword matching the one in the tree-man's throat buried in her gut. There was something clinging to the other end of the sword, but, between the grass and the blood and the girl's loosened dark hair spilling over it, it was impossible to tell what it was. The wounded girl's golden eyes glinted for a few seconds, then fell shut as she passed out.

Shakily, Song knelt beside her and pulled bandages from her bag, immediately setting in to treat her and keep her from dying. As she moved around, the thing holding onto the other end of the sword became clear.

It was an arm.

Just as she uncovered it, Yì Suì screamed again, from the other side of the small clearing.

The girl was stable enough. Song _ran_ to the younger boy.

He had found the body the raggedly severed arm belonged to. It was a hard face to forget.

"_Lee_!" gasped the girl as she dropped to her knees beside him. That was the only outburst she allowed herself as she threw her all into making sure he didn't bleed out.

He was frighteningly pale, and cool, but his heart was still beating, and he was still breathing.

"Yì Suì," said Song as she worked. "I need you to find me some help. Please. They'll die if we can't get them to a better healer…"

The frightened boy nodded, and fled the clearing to look for someone — _anyone_ — who might be able to help. Soon enough, he came across a young man around Song's age lying flat on the ground, coughing. A body lay next to him, of a rather surprised-looking man wearing the same clothing as the first body Yì Suì had found — only this one's nose had been smashed in.

"U-um..." Yì Suì finally managed to get out, his voice a terrified squeak.

The young man made it to his knees and turned to look at Yì Suì. Surprise entered his eyes, and he coughed some more, keeping one hand pressed against his throat. "Y-you okay, kid?" he asked. He was bruised, battered, and bloody — in fact, his physical condition was worse than the dead man's.

Still stammering and high-pitched, and speaking almost too quickly to be understand, the child stammered out what was in the clearing he'd come from.

"_Zuko_," breathed the man. He tried to get to his feet and failed, hitting the ground rather hard. He swore and slammed one heavy fist into the earth, cracking it, and then tried a second time, and made it. "Take me."

Yì Suì nodded, taking care to keep a distance between himself and the stranger, then led him to where he'd left Song.

When the man saw the scene, he swore and rushed to Song and the man she had called Lee, taking notice of the unconscious girl only long enough to sink her into the earth. "Hey!" protested Song, but he ignored her.

"Haven't… got long," he gasped out, then slammed his fist into the ground twice before he, too, passed out, collapsing over Song's lap.

After about ten minutes, a short, blind twelve-year-old girl found them there. She swore rather excessively, sank the unconscious girl a little deeper, and hauled the unscarred young man off of Song.

The doctor let out a relieved sigh at this — the earthbender was _heavy_. "Thank you," she said through tears. Lee — Zuko — whatever his name really was — was dying, and she didn't have the skill to save him.

"...Is Sparky okay to move?" the girl asked, after a few seconds.

"L— Zuko? If he can be kept immobilised…"

She nodded, then raised the earth under him, as a makeshift stretcher. After a moment's thought, she did the same for the other unconscious young man. Slowly, carefully, she started pushing them towards the palace.

Song hesitated. "Wait — what about her?" She indicated the other girl as she got to her feet, brushing in vain at the blood soaking her dress.

The twelve-year-old paused, clearly considering just leaving her there, then shrugged, and, none-too-gently, lifted the entire block the teenager was imprisoned in to drag along as well.

The doctor flinched, then looked for Yì Suì. He was trembling, terrified, on the edge of the clearing. "Come on," she said softly to him. "We'll find somewhere safe for you."

He nodded. "Wh-what about th-them...?"

"I'm going to clean up and help them some more, okay?"

He nodded again. "K-kay." Together, the two of them followed the blind girl, who very quickly ran into another teenage boy, this one dark, with blue eyes. "Well?" she said, abruptly.

"It's over," he said, sounding tired. "He did it, he's fi — " His eyes widened, taking in the three bodies. "What _happened_?"

"No idea. But I think you need to find Sweetness yesterday."

"Right." He turned and ran back for the palace.

While they waited, Song flitted from Lee— Zuko to the teenage girl to the earthbender. She noticed quickly that the earthbender had several lesions on his throat as well as a bruising pattern that indicated someone had tried to garrotte him with a chain. Grimly, she cleaned him up and spread an herbal paste over the wounds on his throat to stop the bleeding. He was going to scar, however — his neck was pinched, and the skin rubbed off in places.

A few minutes later, the dark boy returned with a girl who looked enough like him that she was probably his sister. She let out a little cry of dismay and knelt next to the stretcher holding Zuko.

Song joined her, pointing out where the injured boy needed help that she simply could not provide.

"Sweetness" first tried to reattach the severed arm. After nearly five minutes, however, it became apparent that this was not going to happen — by the looks of things, the injury had been caused by another Dai Li chain. Everything she tried, no matter what, left the arm falling off again. Starting to cry a little, she sealed off the bleeding, tended to the most serious of his other injuries, then turned to the earthbender.

He seemed more exhausted than anything else; Song had done much of the grunt work already.

Satisfied of this, with some reluctance, the waterbender turned to the girl imprisoned in earth. "...I have to, don't I."

"I can hold her," the tiny girl said. "And Sokka can keep his sword on her, too, just in case."

"I'll help," Song added, wondering just what it was about the dying girl that made them all so cautious. Who was she?

"...Fine," 'Sweetness' agreed, still seeming reluctant, and the twelve-year-old opened the top of the earth prison. 'Sokka' drew an eerie black sword and put it at the unconscious girl's throat.

Together, the two girls worked on the unconscious one, Song cleaning the wounds again and moving bandages aside so the younger girl could heal what lay underneath. "All right, that's all I can do," she said, wearily. The tiny earthbender resealed the girl in stone, and the waterbender swayed. Her brother caught her.

"…now what?" asked Song, uncertain.

"We go back to the palace," 'Sokka' said, supporting his sister. "Put Zuko somewhere safe, lock the bitch up somewhere safer, and then..." He shrugged. "We wait for him to wake up and he talks it over with Aang, and they figure out how they're going to handle the next step, I guess."

"I guess Yì Suì and I will find some place to stay," the doctor said after a moment's thought.

"Why don't you come to the palace with us?" 'Sweetness' asked. "You can help with cleanup, 'specially since I'm not good for much more."

Song hesitated, torn. On the one hand, she wasn't nearly as exhausted as many of these people had to be, depending on how long the fighting had gone on. On the other hand… she looked over at Yì Suì again.

He hung on the fringes of the group, clearly intending to follow her wherever she went.

"Is… there somewhere he can stay? Without men?"

"...It's a big palace, I'm sure we can find a room," she replied, sounding a little puzzled.

Song lowered her voice and leaned in close so only Sweetness could hear. "He's been abused by men for most of his life. He's very timid because of it."

Song suspected this didn't spark righteous fury only because the other girl was too tired. "We'll find a room for him."

"Thank you," the doctor said softly, bowing.

Sweetness nodded, then leaned against her brother as they made their slow, careful way back to the palace. A room was quickly found for Yì Suì to stay in, and Song explained to him that she was going to find the infirmary so she could help out some more. "I'll keep the door locked, and only you and I will have the keys, all right?"

He nodded, and made a beeline for the windowsill, where he pushed the window open a little — something of a habit he'd made after that policeman had burst into his room, to ensure that he'd have an escape route should something similar happen again — and curled up.

Song quickly found a change of clothing — her dress was a blood-drenched loss — and then slipped through the palace, trying to find the infirmary. She was sidetracked, however, by every wounded man or woman she came across. She might have lacked a waterbender's healing ability, but she could still clean their injuries, set broken bones, stop bleeding, and ease pain.

After some indeterminate amount of time, an old man pulled her aside and ordered her off for food and sleep. Realising that she was woozy and unsteady on her feet, the girl agreed and then stumbled off to try to find a place to eat. Someone in a uniform — probably a guard — showed her to the kitchen, then to a place where she could crash for a few hours.

She was just coherent enough to thank him before she collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next few days passed in a flurry of activity, with Song and all the others trained and capable working shifts in the infirmary.

Zuko hadn't woken up.

The earthbending boy — Haru was his name — had, however, and was arguing that he should not have to take it easy and rest, that he hadn't been that badly hurt in that last battle. Katara — that was Sweetness's real name — ordered him to take it easy nonetheless, no matter how not-serious his injuries were, he'd severely overextended himself.

"Katara, I'm _fine_," Haru stressed. "I'm all healed up and I'm ready to go."

"You can go on your hunt after one more day of rest," she finally conceded. "No sooner."

The earthbender sighed in vexation, but conceded. The next day dawned, and, true to her word, Katara allowed him to leave.

Relieved, Haru fetched the Dai Li chain that had nearly ended his life and tied it around his waist as a trophy, then slipped out of the palace to go on the hunt for more Dai Li. Not long after he left, he ran into an old man and a middle-aged woman, who were doing the same thing. On seeing them, Haru pulled back, wary.

"Hunting Dai Li?" the man asked, wryly. "Why don't you join us? U—" the woman shot a look and he smoothly corrected himself mid-word "—Bian can disable them so we don't suffer casualties."

"…very well," conceded Haru, coming into the open. "I am Haru."

"As my companion said, I'm called Bian, and he Mushi," the woman replied, bowing. She turned to Mushi. "Give it fifteen minutes, then take them." He nodded.

Haru frowned slightly as he looked between the two. There was something… oddly _familiar_ about both of them, but he was positive he'd never met either of them before. Something to ponder, that.

After the fifteen minutes were over, Mushi disappeared for about a half-hour. "I put them with the others," he said, when he came back.

"Good."

"Do you have any precise methods of dealing with them?" Haru asked then. "Do you want them alive or dead?"

"Alive, if possible," Mushi said. "The more people we can hold to question, if the overall battle went our way, or barter, if it didn't, the better."

The boy nodded. "All right, I'll do my best."

"I'll let you take the next group, then," the old man replied. "Let's find them so Bian can pave the way for us."

"Yes, sir."

The two adults gathered their few supplies and headed off, obviously expecting him to follow. Haru did so without a word, absently fingering the chain around his waist. Their hunt quickly fell into a pattern — when they found a group, Bian would disappear for a little while, return and give them a time estimate, and one of the two men would go secure the poisoned agents.

Between the three of them, they were making short work of the Dai Li, though Haru left more casualties than Mushi did. He offered neither apology nor excuse, despite the strangeness of some of the death wounds.

Neither adult asked him for details. When he returned from his turns taking out the squads, he often found them arguing in undertones, cutting off suddenly when he got there.

Haru didn't like secrets. _Ironic, then, that I have one of my own_, he reflected as he joined them, interrupting yet another argument. He reported to Mushi, much relieved that his body count had dropped, though he was starting to wonder just how many Dai Li Princess Azula had imported.

"There's only one more group, we think," Mushi informed him. "Once it's taken care of, we can all head back to the palace."

"Mushi, I don't think—"

"We've discussed this, Bian."

"With any luck, Zuko will be awake by then," murmured Haru. He hoped so, anyway. The new Firelord wasn't a bad person.

Bian froze. "...Excuse me?"

The earthbender glanced at her. "He was still unconscious when they let me out of the infirmary," he clarified.

"...What happened to him?" she asked, going a few shades paler. Mushi, while not freezing or asking questions, had paused as well, to listen to what Haru had to say.

The boy winced. "He fought his sister and one of the Dai Li."

"Yes, and what _happened_ to him?" she asked, sounding a little frantic.

"I didn't see it," Haru replied, "but he was pretty beat up. And. Um. He lost his arm."

She let out a little cry of dismay, then turned to Mushi.

"Bian, even if you had — " he started, but she cut him off.

"We can talk about blame later," she snapped. "Let's finish with the Dai Li." As she sped up to pass the old man, Haru could distinctly hear her mutter "_Told_ you he'd do it on his own."

More and more interesting, that. He followed.

This last group was smaller than the others, and quickly dispensed with. When the earthbender returned — Mushi had allowed him to take out the last group — the pretty healer who'd been working with Zuko was with the two adults. Bian seemed to know her, as did Mushi, though her relations with the old man were a little awkward.

"…is worried about you," Song was saying to Bian.

Bian looked rather furious. "I _knew_ Lǘ Zi was a bigoted _ass_, but I never thought he'd — well, never mind. How is Yì Suì now, or when you left?"

"He's doing well," Song replied. "We found him a room on one of the higher floors, and Sweetness promised to look in on him for me while I was getting Haru."

"Sweetness?"

"She means Katara," Haru said with a grin. "Toph gives us all nicknames, and she calls Katara 'Sweetness'."

"Katara?"

"The waterbender I told you about," Mushi explained.

Haru nodded. "Katara and Song saved Zuko's life. …and Azula's, but mostly Zuko."

Bian paled a little, swallowing hard, then nodded.

Song cocked her head and glanced at the earthbender. "You're needed back at the palace," she told him. "Toph is good, but she can't watch the whole place all the time. You're the only bender she thinks is almost good enough to spell her."

"From the greatest earthbender in the world, that's a compliment," Haru replied. "As it happens, we're done here."

"I'll take some of the palace guards to where we're holding the agents we captured. Bian should stay in the palace," Mushi said, shooting a look at the woman.

"It's too ris — "

"Riskier to leave and wander."

"It's all right, Bian," said Song quietly. "He needs you."

She bit her lip, but subsided.

By this time, they were at the palace gates. Oddly, Bian and Mushi both carefully hid their faces as they passed.

Haru split away from them quickly, in search of Toph, and Song led the two adults to Zukos room. "Any change?" she asked the guard at the door.

He shook his head. "No, Miss Song. No change."

Disappointed, Song opened the door and took Mushi and Bian inside.

Bian paused at the doorway, staring at the unconscious boy. Lying there, he looked much younger and more vulnerable than she had expected.

The young doctor, however, continued straight to his bed, checking his temperature and breathing without a word. There was no perceptible change from when she'd left.

Bian turned to Mushi.

"You stay," he told her. "I have to go talk to the guards. I'll come back later." Before she could argue, he slipped out, much more stealthily than a man of his bulk should have been able to.

Song was no longer paying attention. She watched Zuko breathe, biting her lip. _He should have woken up by now. Why is he still unconscious?_ Absently, she reached out and smoothed down his hair.

He twitched a little, but didn't wake up.

Bian slowly, hesitantly, approached the bed and took her son's remaining hand. "Oh, my darling. What has the world done to you?"

"You'll make it through this, Lee," Song added quietly from the other side. "You're strong enough to do it."

No response from the boy.

Bian took a deep, shuddery breath and squeezed his hand. "I'm here. I've come home..."

Song fell silent, just watching the young Firelord.

He still didn't respond. Bian started crying.

"He'll wake up, Bian," Song said firmly. "I know he will."

Bian nodded, but didn't stop crying.

Song rose from her chair and moved to wrap her arms gently around the older woman, trying to comfort her. Her shoulders shook slightly as she cried silently into Song's shoulder. After awhile, Song pulled away slightly. "You should eat," she murmured.

"...Yes," Bian agreed, quietly. She squeezed her son's hand one last time. "I'll be back," she told Song, then slipped out of the room to find food.

The doctor closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, then checked the Firelord over for the tenth time. He didn't move or respond, but by now she was sadly used to this. "You'll wake up," she said. "You won't let Azula win."

He twitched a little.

Song gasped. "Lee?"

He made a small noise.

She tried again, using his real name. "P— Lord Zuko?"

He twitched again, and his eyes drifted open.

The girl smiled. "You're awake!"

"...Song...?" he whispered.

"Yes," she replied.

"...sorry..."

"It's all right," she told him, knowing he was referring to the theft, now months past. "I forgave you for that long ago."

"...can't feel my arm..." Now he sounded worried.

Oh, dear. "…your arm is gone," she said after a long pause.

"...Gone?" Confused now, he tried to move it. He paled a little, impossibly, when raising the arm revealed it was, in fact, incomplete.

"Swee— Katara couldn't reattach it," Song whispered. "She tried. I'm sorry."

"Oh."

Song thought rapidly, trying to think of a way to keep him from freaking out or spiralling into a depressive fit.

He dragged himself up to a seated position, then started trying to stand.

"Take it easy," the young doctor cautioned him. "You've been down for almost a week."

He paused, started to swear, caught himself midword, and then stated moving again.

"Lord Zuko—"

He ignored her. He managed to stand, wobbled a bit, off-balance from being unconscious for awhile and shift in centre of balance, then stumbled towards the door. Muttering a curse of her own, Song moved to his side and helped him. Once they were outside, she made him sit down, pushing on his shoulders to get him in a chair.

He shook his head and immediately tried to stand again. "You need to take this in stages, Lord Zuko," she told him. "Whether or not you have to take the throne, you still nearly died. It will take time for you to recover completely."

"I can do this," he said, shortly, and wearily, still trying to stand.

"Of course you can." She held him down. "In ten minutes."

"No, now, lost too much time already."

"Humour me. Please."

"...Fine." He sagged back in the chair.

After ten minutes, Song did allow him to move a little further down the hall. Doctor Chang, the man in charge of all the healers in the palace, was going to scold her for this, but it was far better that Zuko get where he thought he needed to be with assistance rather than try and make the whole trip on his own.

He kept dragging himself along, heading for the throne room. The entire trip wound up taking an hour, as Song made him sit down for five to ten minutes every few metres.

"Lord Zuko!" one of the noblemen cried, spotting him first.

Before he could respond, the young man suddenly found a very frantic twelve-year-old attaching himself to him. "You're awake!" Aang whispered.

Smiling, Song slipped away to inform the palace healers that the Firelord had finally awakened.

Later that day, Song was preparing to go find Yì Suì after an exhausting shift. Between tracking Haru down and Zuko's awakening, the young doctor was strongly interested in a meal and bed.

"Song!" a vaguely familiar voice called. When she turned to see who it was, she found the dark boy — Sokka — from the battle, half-carrying a girl she didn't recognise.

"Sokka, what is it?" she asked, pushing some of her hair from her face.

"She's hurt, you're the first doctor I ran into," he replied.

Song didn't sigh. Back home, it was just her and her mother. She'd been spoiled by Doctor Chang's insistence on shifts. "All right, come with me," she said.

Sokka nodded, and, helping the other girl along, followed.

Once they were in the infirmary, Song got the girl onto a bed and made her lie down, then proceeded to check her injuries.

She had several broken ribs, a long gash running down nearly the full length of her right leg, and various other minor cuts and bruises.

"What _happened_?" she asked the younger girl as she began to clean the gash.

"We made a run for it," she replied, somewhat dully. "Got out of the prison, but she hit her head... she fell asleep, when I woke up the next morning she was already cold."

_She_? Song didn't ask further, instead quietly treating the girl.

"How's Sparky doing?" Sokka asked, softly, while watching.

"He's awake. Aang is with him."

"That's great!"

The young doctor smiled. "Yeah, it is."

Then Sokka's face fell a little. "...I should go talk to him. Ty Lee, you're gonna be okay here?"

The younger girl nodded, hugging herself a little and saying nothing.

"I'll stay with her," Song promised.

"Thanks," the Water Tribe boy said, then headed off to find Zuko.


	4. Chapter 4

A month had passed since Zuko's awakening. The Firelord was physically, at least, recovered from his ordeal though some had their own doubts about his mental state. Azula had been tried and placed in prison for the rest of her natural life, while Ursa and Iroh had both been pardoned. Several of those involved in the last fight had chosen to remain in the Fire Nation while Zuko tried to get everything together; among them were Song, Haru, and Aang.

Reports were filtering in from across the nation; the most distressing of these came from the Coastline Base, which recently had been attacked. Haru had been sent out with the team of investigators and came back to report that the base had been completely torn apart and no survivors had been found — and that the attack had been carried out by Dai Li agents.

Once he finished reporting to General Iroh, now in charge of security, the earthbender stalked to a practice court he and Toph had set up before she'd left with Sokka and Suki.

Unnoticed by the earthbender, Ty Lee snuck out to follow him there. She'd taken to following the pretty young man a lot, when she thought he wouldn't catch her — Mai was dead, Azula imprisoned, and Zuko never smiled anymore, so it was rather lonely for her in the palace.

Right now, Haru seemed almost frighteningly single-minded, scarcely taking note of the people he passed; when he crossed into a little-used part of the grounds, the chain around his waist came off and he began to swing it in a circle.

She perched in a tree, well-hidden by the branches, to watch him.

Once he got a good momentum, he began to move with the chain, flowing from stance to stance almost as though he was dancing. Clearly, he'd been teaching himself to use it as a weapon.

It was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. She hugged her branch, hardly daring to breathe for fear of being discovered.

Finally, he slowed, and then stopped, returning the chain to its place around his waist. He then moved into an earthbending stance and began an entirely different set of kata, though he didn't move as gracefully with this.

It was still beautiful. Again, she held her breath, watching.

Once he was finished with that, he glanced around to be certain he was alone, then raised a circular wall of earth around him — though he did not put a roof on it, leaving the acrobat able to see him still. Once hidden, he earthbent again, and removed a large sheet of dented, twisted metal from the ground. He placed this flat on the ground in front of him, then sat lotus-style, clearly meditating.

She frowned a little, and dared to inch a little closer on her branch for a better view.

For several minutes, nothing happened — and then Haru abruptly straightened, then slammed his fists into the metal five times in rapid succession.

The metal held — and then crumpled.

Her eyes widened and she barely avoided gasping and giving away her presence.

By now the earthbender was panting. He got to his feet shakily and brought down his walls, taking care to bury the even-more dented sheet of metal when he did. After that, he made his way shakily back to the main areas of the palace.

She waited until he was out of sight, then slipped down from her tree, to sit down for a minute where he'd been working. The earth was still warm.

She had never wanted a boy quite as much as she wanted this one.

* * *

A few days after Ty Lee had discovered Haru secretly metalbending, she found him out on the grounds, sleeping with one hand trailing in the turtleduck pond. Amusingly, since he'd been trying to cultivate a tough-guy image in the palace, a trio of turtleducklings were curled up on his chest.

She covered her mouth to muffle the slight giggle she couldn't otherwise suppress, then set about her own practice — making sure he could see her when he woke up. However, every time she looked over at him, he still looked as though he was sleeping.

She sighed faintly, disappointed, but kept going, anyhow.

The next time she looked over, his eyes were open.

"Hello," she said, from her upside-down position.

"Hi," he replied, still lying down — the turtleducklings were still there.

She flipped back over so she was right-side up again. "I'm Ty Lee."

"I know." Haru sat up, moving one arm to cradle the turtleducklings and keep them from taking a tumble, and smiled at her. "I'm Haru."

She smiled back. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah."

Suddenly she had no idea what to say. She even felt awkward — which was _decidedly_ odd, though the squirmy feeling wasn't entirely unpleasant — so, blushing a little, she stammered out some excuse about checking in on Zuko — _someone_ had to try and make him smile again, and the people he worked with all day certainly weren't going to — and scampered off to her room.

Bemused, the earthbender watched her go.

That day started a routine of sorts, though perhaps only Ty Lee knew it. She would follow him and watch him run through his various kata, including the metalbending, and then when he went to sleep it off by the turtleduck pond she would do a workout of her own until he woke up.

And then one day a few weeks later, about twenty minutes into his meditation, Haru unexpectedly looked up into Ty Lee's eyes. "How long do you intend to keep this up?"

She yelped a little and almost fell out of the tree, catching herself on the branch on her way down. "I — um — I'm sorry!" She dropped the rest of the way with a little more control and fled.

"Ty Lee! Wait!" he called after her.

She kept running until she made the mistake of looking back to see if he was following. Not paying attention, she tripped on the small ridge of earth Haru had managed to bend up, messed up catching herself because she was so flustered, and ended up sprawled on the ground.

"Ty Lee—" He was close.

"I'm sorry for spying on you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't do it anymore, I promise…" she babbled out, _why'd I have to get caught, now everything's falling apart again and it's all my fault_…

"Why?" he asked her.

"I didn't mean to bother you, I just… I don't know!"

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Ty Lee…"

"Y-yeah?" She finally looked up at him.

He kissed her.

This, she understood and knew how to do, though she was slightly confused as to why he was kissing her.

Not that she _minded_, of course.

She kissed him back.

They stayed there for a long time, until the earthbender finally pulled away from her. A little hesitantly, she smiled up at him. "I've known," he told her softly, running a hand down her cheek.

"Oh…" She blushed a little, then caught his hand and kissed it, only partly to cover her embarrassment.

"You never told anyone."

She shook her head. "Nope."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She wasn't quite sure why he was being so secretive, but… well, it was his secret to keep or share. Which was why she was sure he'd be mad at her when he found out she'd been spying.

He took her hand in his. "Want to go for a walk?"

"…Okay!"

* * *

After the final battle of the war, the newly-crowned Firelord Zuko had thrown himself entirely into his new work — not necessarily because he enjoyed it (most of the time, the opposite was rather true), but because it was something that needed to be done, and helped him avoid thinking about all the things he wished he didn't know or remember or dream about.

To further avoid sleep, he spent most nights in a practice arena, trying to keep in shape — no easy feat when he couldn't get his balance to work the way it had before.

A voice drifted lazily from behind him: "You're off-balance."

"I'm aware of that," he replied, through gritted teeth.

"Then fix it, sir."

"I'm _trying_."

Silence.

Zuko growled something impolite under his breath and shifted again, with no better results than the last stance he'd tried.

Footsteps; the man watching him was coming closer. "Move your foot to the right an inch or so."

Zuko did as suggested. As it turned out, this stance was much more comfortable. He frowned a little to himself, then started running through his kata again.

After a few moments, the voice spoke again. "You see? The key is to forget you ever had that arm."

The young Firelord nodded a little. His unseen instructor made a few other suggestions, but mostly kept his own council. Every few minutes, he tried to see who was offering the advice, but the man remained mostly in shadow.

Finally, after an hour or two of this work, he turned around again to suggest they stop for the night. He still had some papers he needed to go over before he was willing to risk nightmares.

The other man was leaning casually against the wall, no longer in the shadows, clad in practise garments. An insignia on his belt indicated that he was one of the Li clan, a military family older than even Zuko's — but the first thing Zuko noticed was the empty place where the man's left arm should have been.

_That explains how he knew what to do_. Zuko didn't say anything out loud though, just bowed very slightly. "Thank you for the advice."

The soldier bowed in return. "It was an honour, my lord."

The Firelord nodded, then left the room and slipped back into his study.

Several days after his first meeting with Li Daisuke — the one-armed soldier — Zuko, fed up with the poor lighting (and poorer handwriting) he was trying to work with in his study, went to try and work outside. It was a nice day, and maybe the better quality light would help his head stop hurting.

Song was out there, feeding the turtleducks.

Zuko hadn't seen much of the young doctor since he'd woken up — they were both very busy, and often busy at the same time. Why was she still there? She should have gone home months ago.

He frowned a little to himself, wondering, then decided not to worry about it — if she wanted to stay here, that was her business. She was welcome to if she so chose. He settled himself under a tree with his papers to try and fight through some more of them.

When he looked up again, she was looking at him.

"Hello," he said, after a few seconds of awkward, slightly stunned, silence.

"H-hi," she said, a bit too quickly, flushing slightly and looking back down at the water.

He flushed a little himself, and turned back to his papers, frowning again. He turned the one on top upside down. It failed to make it more comprehensible. It also failed to make it _less_ incomprehensible.

He felt like shooting something. Namely, whoever wrote the damn illegible memo.

A shadow fell over him. It was Song.

He looked up again.

"You seem stressed, my lord," she said quietly.

"…I'm fine. And you don't need to call me "my lord.""

She laughed as she settled down next to him. "Liar."

He arched his eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"You're tense."

"I'm fine. I told you."

"I can help you relax," she offered anyway.

He jerked his mind out of the gutter, where it really had no time to be _anyways_. "I see." He was blushing, wasn't he. Dammit.

"Come away from the tree?"

He did as he was told, standing and stepping away from it. She got him to sit down again, then knelt behind him. The next thing he knew, her hands were moving over his shoulders, seeking out the tense muscles there and slowly massaging the knots out. Slowly, he relaxed, making it even more difficult to focus on the illegible papers he was trying to read. Before he'd realized it was happening, he'd drifted off to sleep.

Song smiled a little and gently eased him back — he needed the sleep even more than he'd needed that massage. Rather than lay him entirely on the ground and risk him waking, however, she settled his head in her lap and leaned back against the tree herself.

It wasn't long before he twitched a little, frowning faintly in his sleep.

Half asleep herself, Song looked down at him.

His frown deepened as he twitched again, making a small noise of — fear, maybe? It was hard to tell.

Coming fully awake, Song tried to soothe the young Firelord. He quieted a little under her touch, though he still looked remarkably unhappy. With a sigh, the young doctor closed her eyes. Him and Yì Suì…

After about an hour, Zuko drifted back awake, and was momentarily disoriented. _Where am I_…? _Oh… right, came to work outside. That means_… He looked up. His head was still in Song's lap. He flushed.

Song's eyes were closed, and she had a very faint smile on her face.

_…Is she asleep_…?

She certainly seemed to be. She had to be, really; while one of her hands lay against the grass, the other was resting lightly on his chest.

He debated moving. He didn't really _want_ to. And it wouldn't be polite to disturb the sleeping girl. But he should get back to work…

Then again, the papers he'd brought out were within reach. He could go back to trying to decipher them without disturbing her. Song sighed in her sleep and shifted slightly; her hand trailed across his chest to his shoulder. He froze, halfway through drawing his papers over, to make sure he hadn't woken her up. When he was satisfied of this, he started trying to read them.

And made mental notes to mandate handwriting and grammar lessons, as soon as he had the time and monetary and political capital to do so.

Time passed, and the doctor woke up. "Oh!" she exclaimed softly.

He looked up from his papers. "Hey. Sleep well?"

"…yeah." She smiled ruefully. "I didn't mean to."

He didn't smile back, but he came close. "It's all right." He turned back to the paper, frowning again.

She looked at it as well. "…did a seven-year-old write that?"

"He'll be fifty-eight next Tuesday."

"That's a very long time to be seven."

Zuko shook his head. "No, he's not seven. Most seven-year-olds have decipherable grammar."

"Good point," she conceded.

"…Although I will concede that some seven-year-olds have worse handwriting. Not many, but some."

Song laughed. "Well, don't spend too long staring at that. You'll go blind." She slipped her hands under his head and gently eased him up.

"Problem is, this is one of the important ones," he muttered, annoyed.

"Perhaps you should hire a translator," she teased.

"I'm not inflicting this headache on anyone else," he replied.

Cool fingers pressed lightly against his temples. "Does it hurt here?"

"… I'm fine," he said, even though it did.

"Liar." Her fingers began to move in slow, gentle circles.

"If you do that, I'll fall asleep again," he pointed out.

"If you fall asleep again, you're badly in need of it," she countered.

"I'm getting a couple hours most nights," he shot back, defensively. "I just have better things to do."

"Zuko, you're seventeen. People our age need eight to ten hours of sleep a night, ideally."

"I don't have time for that."

"Neither do I," she admitted. "But Doctor Chang won't let me set foot in the infirmary unless I get at least six hours."

"… I don't have time for that, either," he said. "I usually aim for two or three."

Her fingers stopped moving.

"Something wrong?" he asked, frowning and looking up from the paper he was still trying to decode.

"You, my lord," she said, rising to her feet, "are an idiot." She walked away.

He blinked after her, a little confused. _What brought _that_ on?_

After a moment, he gave in to the inevitable, collected his papers, and headed back inside. It was almost sundown, and he still had ten people expecting to meet with him that day.

_And people wonder why I don't have time to sleep_.

* * *

Zuko began making a habit of taking his paperwork outside in the afternoons — not because he wanted to see Song every day, of course. Simply because the light was better. His head ached a little less when he read outside than when he read in his study.

Song, for her part, was outside whenever she wasn't needed in the infirmary or by Yì Suì. Because the turtleducks needed to be fed. Yes. That was it.

He rarely initiated conversation — not wanting to disturb her. He would usually sit under a tree, glaring at his paperwork. After an hour or so of this, she would rise and slide behind him, trying to alleviate his tension with a shoulders-and-temples massage, which rarely failed to make him fall asleep.

And thus did the rumour mill begin to churn. Song ignored them; no matter what it looked like, she wasn't trying to seduce the young Firelord. They were friends, nothing more. And he certainly didn't want her to seduce him. Not at all. And he certainly didn't put up with the drowsiness her massages caused as an excuse to let her touch him.

However, Song made a point of never being alone with him if they weren't in the public eye — she was afraid of negative backlash impacting poor Yì Suì. Fortunately, the rumour mill seemed content to ignore him — most of the palace didn't even seem to be aware he existed. This suited Song and Yì Suì equally well. Even better, Song didn't need to worry about the boy while she was on shift in the infirmary, as Lady Ursa had taken to looking after him as well.

The princess dowager was even teaching him how to read.

All told, everything really seemed to be going well.

One such afternoon, Zuko didn't show up the way he usually did, and Song was almost late for her next shift waiting for him. Once she got to the infirmary, she was much quieter than usual.

"What's wrong?" Doctor Chang asked her, a little concerned.

Startled, she looked up at him. "Nothing's wrong," she replied, confused.

"… If you're sure," he said, and dropped the issue.

About a half an hour later, a page pressed a folded note into her hand. It was another hour before she had enough of a breather to take a look at it.

_Miss Song —_

_I'm sorry I missed our meeting earlier, I got tied up at my desk and couldn't leave._

_— Zuko_.

He'd fallen asleep at his desk. Song laughed aloud and skipped back out into the infirmary proper. Chang arched an eyebrow. "Good news?"

"After a fashion," she said cheerfully.

"Good." He smiled at her, then went back onto his rounds.

Song was still in a good mood when she returned to the quarters she shared with Yì Suì that evening. Ursa was with him. They were sitting on the floor, practicing writing. The young doctor paused, drinking in the scene. Yì Suì looked so happy, and that was such a rare thing for the boy.

"You seem delighted," Ursa said, looking up and smiling at her.

"Do I?"

"Yes, you do. Ah, not quite, Yì Suì, more like this."

Song smiled and found a seat at the table, stretching languidly and wondering why she was so happy.

Ursa gave her a searching look, then, conversationally, after a moment, said, "You know, many of the various Houses are trying to court my son. Everyone with an eligible female relative within ten years of his age, in fact."

The doctor froze. "…really?"

"Yes." The older woman's face and tone were very even. "One of them, a Lady Zhan, has developed quite the infatuation. It borders on an obsession."

Song did _not_ like this turn of events at all.

_…wait. Why does this make me so… oh, dear_.

"She tries to turn up in hallways when she thinks he'll be there, hangs around his study… She also keeps sending him letters soaked in perfume. Which really don't help her case. Or his headaches." Now Ursa sounded rather annoyed,

The doctor scowled. "He must be allergic to something in the perfume. No wonder he's so tense when I see him."

"Well, that and he doesn't have enough lights in his study and doesn't get nearly enough sleep."

"He sleeps with me." Song paused, realised what she'd said, and blushed. "I-I-I mean, he s-sleeps outside! When w-we're by the p-pond!"

Ursa smiled. "I know what you meant. And you're right. But the problem is, that's about all the sleep he gets."

"I know." She sighed. "He told me he manages a couple hours a night, which isn't enough for someone his age."

"He _tries_ for a couple hours a night," Ursa corrected, annoyed again. "He averages a little less than one."

The girl's next sigh was rather vexed. "Idiot."

"Sometimes I wonder where he got his anal devotion to what he sees as his duty."

"So it isn't a Fire Nation thing?" Song asked.

"Not usually."

"Well, I'll do what I can," the doctor promised.

"Thank you. He doesn't listen to me. He seems to be convinced I'm trying to sedate him. I wonder where he might have gotten that idea." She sounded so very innocent, her son's suspicions couldn't possibly be unfounded.

Song raised her eyebrow. "Of course. Then it was just my imagination that I saw you making tea with winter cherry."

"Must have been. I would never think of drugging my son." One could practically see the halo.

"Of course not. And the king of Omashu really _is_ as stupid as he acts."

"Absolutely."

"So long as that's settled, then."

"Indeed." Still smiling, Ursa turned back to Yì Suì, gently correcting his writing.


	5. Chapter 5

Summer had shaded into autumn, and Song had come to terms with her growing feelings for the Firelord. She rather suspected that it was a form of Yè-Yīng Lénsī Syndrome 1 — after all, she _had_ helped nurse Zuko back to health. So long as she didn't actually _act_ on her feelings, and nobody ever figured out that the massages had become an excuse to touch him, she would be in the clear.

Zuko, for his part, was too generally exhausted to act on his reciprocating feelings — which he was glad of. He didn't want to face rejection, and Mai's death was still a little too close.

None of this, however, stopped their afternoon meetings by the turtleduck pond.

One such afternoon, Zuko arrived before Song, so, when she got there, she found him in his usual spot, frowning down at his papers. The characters, as had become their highly irritating habit over the last several weeks, kept sliding in and out of focus. Chasing them just made his headache worse.

Something settled down over his nose and ears, and the characters swam into visibility. Startled, and slightly confused, he looked up.

Song had a satisfied look on her face. "Does that help?"

"…yes," he admitted, a little sullenly.

"I thought so."

"Glasses?" He did not sound pleased.

"Yes, Lord Zuko."

"Great."

"You've probably needed them for a long time," Song told him.

He didn't have an answer for that. Truth to tell, characters had been getting blurry for years, but it hadn't caused him problems until he took the throne.

"Probably the poor lighting and the poor handwriting have been making it more noticeable," she added.

"…Oh."

She looked at him for a long moment. "You look really handsome in them."

"Really?" He looked up.

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

He almost smiled.

Song laughed and sat down in front of him. "It won't be so bad, Lord Zuko."

"I suppose not." _Unless someone jumps me while I'm reading and smashes these and the glass gets in my eyes_.

She smiled again and moved behind him to start the usual massage.

Mere seconds later, chains flew out of nowhere, grasping both Song and Zuko around wrists and ankles. The ones attached to the girl jerked, pulling her into Zuko so that he couldn't firebend. "Let her go!" he shouted, assuming that he was the primary target.

Song was struggling against her restraints, trying to get free. "Lee, run!" she yelled, forgetting in her panic that he couldn't.

"Leave her _alone_!" he shouted, ignoring Song and struggling against his own chains.

The guards came running, but were halted by two men in the same green uniforms as the body Song had found near Zuko and his sister the night of the final battle. "LEE!" screamed the girl as she was pulled away from him now. There was a grunt; one of the guards was down, possibly dead to judge from the speed of the blow to the head.

"LET HER G — " A small _thunk_, and the Firelord was knocked unconscious.

Song was pulled to her feet as she fought her restraints. "Let go of him! Lee!"

"We don't want to hurt you, miss," one of the men in green said, quietly.

"I didn't say anything about me," she snapped, then looked past him and paled. All the guards were down now, unconscious or dead, some with their limbs twisted in unnatural positions.

"But if you continue to resist," he continued, ignoring her objection, "we will. And then who will help when we hurt _him_?"

Song froze, her brown eyes going wide in horror.

"Will you behave?"

Her eyes drifted to the unconscious Firelord. After a moment, she nodded.

"Good." He and his companions dragged the two teenagers off of the palace grounds, carrying them to a compound a ways from the palace, confusing their trail with earthbending. As she'd promised silently, Song behaved; however, she kept looking for possible ways to get away. She doubted this would be like the time she and Yì Suì had been kidnapped, unfortunately.

Once they arrived in the compound, Zuko and Song were tossed into a small metal cell, and locked in. The doctor promptly checked Zuko's head, hoping he hadn't been concussed during the short fight. Thankfully, he didn't seem to be, and he woke up within ten minutes of their being tossed into the cell.

"You okay?" he asked, as soon as he had reoriented himself.

"Yes," she said softly. "They didn't hurt me."

"_Good_," he said, fiercely.

Unexpectedly, she hugged him tightly and hid her face in his shoulder. She was shaking.

"We'll get out of here," he reassured her, though he wasn't entirely certain of that. _I can't melt our way out, too confined, and my fine control's never been great, and it got worse after I lost my arm_…

"We have to," she whispered.

"Yeah…"

"I… I'm not a fighter, Lee," she told him. It was easier to call him Lee than Zuko, especially now that they were prisoners. "But I'll do what I can to help."

He nodded. "We need to figure out how this cell's put together."

"Right." Song took a deep breath and let go of him. He stood up, and started examining the cell walls, inch by inch. The girl moved to the door and began looking it over carefully as well.

"Any luck?" he asked, after about an hour.

"No," she said sadly. "What about you?"

"I'm not sure. I think one of these panels is loose. If we could find something to pry — "

The door opened, and chains shot out and grabbed the monarch.

"Lee!" Song gasped, lunging for him. He slipped out of her grasp, though, and the door was slammed behind him.

"No! Lee! Lee! _Lee!_"

* * *

"…something's not right," Haru said.

"What's wrong?" Ty Lee asked.

"Song hasn't passed by yet. Usually she's gone back to work by now."

Ty Lee frowned, and ran off towards the turtleduck pond. Haru was right on her heels. They quickly found the downed guards, as well as the injuries that put them down. "Oh, _no_!" Ty Lee cried.

"Check for a pulse!" Haru ordered, then turned his attention to inspecting the ground for hints.

There were several, but they all seemed to point in different directions.

"…They're all alive, just unconscious," Ty Lee called, relieved. "You got anything?"

"I have a lot of things," said Haru. His voice had changed, holding barely-controlled anger. "And they all lead to one conclusion."

She knew only one thing made him that angry. "The Dai Li," she breathed.

"Guess we didn't get all of them after all."

"She didn't bring the entire force back with her," Ty Lee said quietly. "And not all of 'em were stationed around the capital, anyway."

"I'm going after them," Haru replied, getting to his feet.

"I'm coming with you."

"I need you to do something first." He turned to her. "You're faster than I am, I know you can catch up. You've gotta tell the General."

She nodded, and ran off into the palace.

Haru closed his eyes and put both of his hands on the ground, hoping that he'd be able to pick up a trail with earthbending. He found the trail, but it was tangled up by other earthbending.

It was enough.

He pushed himself to his feet and began to run.

Ty Lee caught up with him twenty minutes later. He nodded a greeting from where he was kneeling, trying to make sense of this next junction. The earthbender had a feeling that this might take them awhile.

* * *

After two hours, Zuko was tossed back into the cell, soaking wet.

"Lee…?" Song knelt beside him, and gasped when she realised that he was also freezing cold. There were no blankets in the cell, so the doctor considered her options, then very carefully laid down on top of him, trying to use her body heat to help warm him up. After a few minutes, he warmed up enough to start shaking uncontrollably. _That's good_, she thought, relieved, and reached for his hand. Drawing it to her lips, she slowly exhaled, hoping the heat of her breath would help.

He closed his eyes and huddled a little close to her for warmth. "D-dunno h-how l-l-long…"

"How long what?" she asked.

"T-til th-th-they c-come b-back…"

Song nodded. "Right. I guess we can only wait." She laid her head down on his shoulder, still breathing on his fingers.

He kept shivering. "G-got a l-l-look around, i-if w-we c-can g-get out th-the b-back…"

"We'll be in the clear?" Carefully, Song shifted, quite deliberately pressing her breasts against him in a way that would hopefully help to heat him.

"Y-yeah…"

"Then we just need a way to get out of this cell." She pressed his hand between both of hers and let out a slow breath against his neck.

He nodded. His tremors were slowing. Once he stopped trembling entirely, Song rolled off of him and drew the young Firelord into a sitting position, leaning him against her.

Less than five minutes later, the door opened again and chains shot in again to grab the young Firelord for more of whatever they were doing to him. Desperately, Song tried to keep hold of him, but he was pulled through her grasp. "No, wait!"

Rough hands shoved her back into the cell, which was locked again.

Song cried out in frustration and slammed her fists against the door helplessly.

Zuko was gone longer this time, and returned just as wet and frozen as the first time, with obvious restraint marks on his wrists and ankles. Again she lay down on top of him, trying to warm him up. "We'll get out of this," she murmured, lips almost brushing his palm as she tried to warm his hand again. Extremities first, trick the body into thinking it was warmer than it actually was.

He nodded, though there was a slightly haunted look on his eyes. "'C-c-course w-we w-will…"

"…Lee?"

"Y-y-yeah…?"

"Are you all right?"

"F-f-f-fine…"

Song didn't believe him, but she wasn't willing to argue the point. She laid her head down again, closing her eyes and making sure to remain between him and the door this time. She had less than an hour to warm him up when the door opened a third time.

Deliberately, she kept her back to the door, wrapping her arms around Zuko's torso and hiding her face in his shirt. The same rough hands as before pulled her off of him, and he was chained again. "No! Leave him alone!" screamed the girl, struggling against her captor.

"L-let _go_ of her!" Zuko shouted at the same time.

In the ensuing struggle, he managed to get a small dagger kicked into the cell. The agents didn't seem to notice when they tossed her back in and dragged the young Firelord off again.

As soon as the door was closed, Song retrieved the dagger and hid it in her clothing, then promptly tried to find the loose panel Zuko had mentioned. It took a couple hours, especially with the complications of working around damp, sticky clothes, but she managed to prise the panel off. Sure enough, the hole it left was wide enough for the two teenagers to slip through the ventilation shaft beyond — but barely. They'd only be able to make it because neither Firelord nor doctor had reached their full growth just yet.

Carefully, she replaced the cover. Getting out was not going to be easy, especially if they continued to throw Zuko in half-frozen, which they did, an hour and a half after she finally got the panel off. This time, as she warmed him, she told him quietly of her accomplishment and what lay behind the metal.

"L-l-l-let's g-go," he said, as soon as he was warm enough to talk.

As a doctor, Song would have recommended they wait just a bit longer, but they didn't have that kind of time. "Yes."

He dragged himself up, shivering, and dragged the panel off. "Q-quick, b-b-before th-they c-come b-back…"

Obediently, Song crawled in.

He followed, and the two of them made their way out of the compound. Pursuit was oddly slow, but the doctor wasn't going to question good fortune. Zuko went as quickly as he could, which, given that he was only half-thawed, wasn't very fast.

"Lord Sparky!" called a familiar voice. "Doctor!"

Song looked up. "Angelface! Ty Lee!"

"Are you guys okay? What happened?" Ty Lee asked all in a rush.

"F-f-f-fine," Zuko assured her, teeth chattering.

"Liar," said Haru, stripping off his overshirt and wrapping it around Zuko's shoulders. "Ty Lee, get them both back to the palace. I'll watch for the Dai Li."

"If you haven't caught up in fifteen minutes, I'm coming back for you," Ty Lee said.

Haru kissed her quickly. "Get them safe first. I won't raid the place, I promise."

She kissed back, but didn't agree. "Come on, Song, Zuzu. Let's go home."

"Right," whispered Song. She was still holding onto Zuko desperately.

He wasn't hugging her back, but he wasn't asking her to let go either.

Ty Lee led them back to the palace, glancing back every so often for Haru.

Fourteen minutes later, he was back. "Nothing from them," he reported. "Not even a message."

"That's weird," she said.

"Yeah. Come on. I don't trust this."

"Me neither," she said, frowning.

When they got back to the palace, Haru said, "I'm going to have a chat with the general. Ty Lee, you get him somewhere warm."

"Of course," she said. "C'mon, Song, let's get him to his room."

"Okay," the doctor agreed instantly.

"Let's go, Zuzu, come on, you need to warm up…"

Once they were inside, Song pulled Zuko over to his head, saying to the acrobat, "Can you build up a fire?"

She nodded, and knelt by the fireplace to do so. Song carefully got the Firelord into his bed and pulled the blankets over him, then searched the room for more to pile on him. He was shaking violently now, huddled under the blankets. Worried, she checked his temperature. "We may need to get Doctor Chang if he doesn't warm up soon," she said.

Ty Lee nodded, biting her lip.

Song closed her eyes. "What… what did they _want_…?"

"C-c-condition m-me…" Zuko whispered from the bed.

Song turned. "What…?"

"Th-they w-wanted t-to c-c-condition m-me…d-dunno h-how m-m-much…"

Horrified, the doctor glanced over at Ty Lee.

"That's what the Dai Li do," she said, sounding angry. "They brainwash people."

"…does Angelface know that?"

"Yes. That's what he went to talk to the General about."

"Right," Song said, testing Zuko's temperature again.

He was a little warmer, but still too cold.

The doctor debated climbing in with him, then decided to just send Ty Lee for Doctor Chang. Ty Lee didn't go — she poked her head out and sent a page for Chang. In the end, the result was the same, so Song knelt by Zuko's bed and held his hand in hers.

"General," said Haru, leaning against the door frame. His trophy chain was no longer tied around his waist, but hanging loose off his shoulders.

"Did you find them?"

"Yes. They managed to get free on their own. Sparky was half-frozen, though." Green eyes narrowed. "And there was no sign of pursuit."

"…none at all?" Iroh frowned.

"Yeah. I dunno about you, but that makes me all jumpy and paranoid."

"Me as well."

Haru sighed. "I got the location of the place, though." He set a piece of paper down on the old man's desk.

"Thank you," Iroh said, scanning it briefly.

The earthbender hesitated. He knew what he wanted to ask, but was now the best time?

"What's on your mind?" Apparently, the old man seemed to think so.

"…I want to go with whoever you send to take them out."

Iroh considered for a moment, then nodded. "Fine."

Haru bowed, Fire Nation style. "Thank you, general."

"Of course." The old man bowed back.

"Any orders for me in the meantime?"

He shook his head. "None specific, no."

"All right." Haru bowed a second time, then took his leave.

The search team was quickly assembled, and went out within hours.

They found the compound deserted. Several documents had been left behind, and there were other signs that the agents' leavetaking had been abrupt. Haru, however, seemed determined to search the entire place from top to bottom, inch by inch, to be sure nobody was left.

One other member of the strike team, the captain, stayed behind with him. This annoyed the earthbender, as there were some things he wanted to do, but he took it in stride, and even found some more documents. He read every one of them before turning them into his current partner.

"Time to head back, I think," the older man said when they'd searched literally every inch of the facility. In addition to the cell in which Zuko and Song had been held, there was a room with a table, with leather straps clearly designed to hold someone down to it, and a tank of water.

"I'll be right behind you. There's some things I want to check out."

"Not leaving anyone behind, kid. Sorry."

Well, it had been worth a shot. "All right."

"Let's go," he said, clearly intending the younger man should leave first.

_That_ made Haru bristle slightly. What, he couldn't be trusted to follow orders now? Annoyed, he stalked out.

He could always come back after night fell.

Which, if the older man knew anything about just how personally Haru took the Dai Li, was probably why he was bringing up the rear.

Together, they made it back to the palace. The older man left to deliver his report and the papers to the General, and Haru waited until an hour after total darkness fell before sneaking out of the palace.

Ty Lee followed him, though he seemed to have anticipated this: about halfway there, he stopped and waited for her to catch up.

"You're not going without backup," she said flatly.

He gave her a rueful smile. "I know that. That would be why I'm waiting."

She grinned back, perking up immediately when she realized he wasn't going to do the Stupidly Chivalrous thing and try to send her back. "Let's go, then."

He offered her his hand and, when she took it, led her back to the place. "I know I need someone to watch my back, love. Also to drag me back to the palace when I'm done here."

"You're going to smash it?"

"To hell and gone," he replied.

"Okay."

Together, the two of them made one last search of the compound, then Haru sent Ty Lee outside while he began to weaken the structure. She paced outside, not liking the idea of him being alone in a building that was about to collapse. Soon, however, he slipped outside, looking exhausted. "Almost got it," he murmured, kneeling and putting his hands on the ground. "You might want to hold on to something."

"…You sure you're okay to do more?" she asked, biting her lip and clinging to a nearby tree.

"Just this much," he replied, then raised his hands and slammed them into the ground.

A jagged crack ran from the point of impact to the metal building as the ground heaved violently, and the compound collapsed in on itself. Ty Lee watched it crumple, and part of her — the vicious part that she never ever listened to — wished that there had been some of those Dai Li bastards who fucked with her heart-brother's head in there.

Haru slumped to the ground, spent. Ty Lee let him rest there for a few minutes, then silently helped him up and back to the palace. Once there, he ate like an ostrich-horse and then dragged himself off to his room after a tired kiss goodnight. Ty Lee went back to Zuko's room — she'd privately assigned herself the task of babysitting Song until a better bodyguard could be given the task, and that was where she expected to find the doctor.

Sure enough, that's where she was, sleeping with her head resting on the bed beside Zuko.

Ty Lee smiled a little at the sight, then settled herself in a chair she dragged by the door.

* * *

1 Florence Nightingale Syndrome, essentially.


	6. Chapter 6

At some point during the night, Song had been moved from Zuko's bedroom to the one she shared with Yì Suì. Exhausted by the ordeal and some severe emotional upheaval, the young doctor didn't wake up until late afternoon, when she settled down at her desk and began to write. Yì Suì had likely gone to the palace library with Ursa at some point before Song woke up.

A little less than a half hour after she started, someone tapped at the door.

Startled, Song hid the letter and wiped her face — tears? When had she started crying? — before opening the door.

It was Zuko. "Hi."

"Le— Lord Zuko!" she gasped, surprised.

"You don't have to call me that," he said, the way he always did when she used his title.

She, as always, ignored him. "I— I'm glad you're doing better…"

He nodded. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes." Song forced a smile for him.

Zuko visibly relaxed. "Good. Good, I'm glad."

"What about you?" she whispered softly.

"I'm fine," he said reassuringly.

Her hand drifted up to touch his face, and she worriedly looked him over.

"I'm _fine_, Song, really," he repeated.

"You always say that."

"I'm fine unless I can't function," he replied.

Song just closed her eyes and sighed.

He gave her a twisted little half-smile — the closest he ever came to smiling anymore — and repeated his assurances that he was fine, she had nothing to worry about.

"If you say so," she said at last, shaking her head.

"I do," he said, and then trailed off, with no idea what to say or do next.

Just as lost, Song looked up at him, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

_You should kiss her_, the teenage boy in him suggested.

It did seem to be a good idea, and the angle at which she was tilting her face to meet his eyes was perfect.

_I can't_, he told that part of himself, very curtly.

_Of course you can. She's _right there.

_All right, technically I _can_, but I shouldn't. And I won't._

_Why the hell not?_

_Well, for starters, she'll hit me._

_…She's not going to hit you_.

"…Lord Zuko?" Song asked, frowning.

"Huh?"

"You're… staring at me." Her cheeks were red.

"…I'm sorry." He flushed a little.

_And now you missed your chance. You idiot._

_Shut up_.

She glanced down, shifting awkwardly again and licking her lips.

_You could still try, you know._

_You just told me I missed my chance!_

_So? She's _right there. _And very pretty. In case you hadn't noticed._

_I noticed!_

_Then prove it._

He kissed her.

Startled, the doctor froze — and then she kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him. He slid his free arm up her next to cup her cheek in his hand.

_Told you she wouldn't hit you_.

The next moment, wetness touched his thumb. She was crying.

He pulled back a little, confused.

_Okay, this is the _last_ time I listen to my fucking libido. I made her _cry.

_Hey, it's not _my_ fault you have about a quarter of the experience with girls a boy your age should have_.

"Song?" he asked, letting go.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said quickly, rubbing at her face. "Something got in my eye…"

_…She's lying_, he thought. "All right… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to — I shouldn't have — I should go."

She hesitated, then kissed him again. "I… I guess I'll see you later?"

"S-sure. I just…I should get back to work. I just wanted to make sure you were all right." _I didn't come here to assault you, I swear_.

"Goodbye, Zuko," she whispered, turning to go back into her room.

"Bye." He ran off, and despised himself for his callousness and cowardice — he really failed every woman who mattered to him in every possible way.

* * *

Song was gone the next morning. The only thing proving that she had left under her own power was a trio of letters, for Doctor Chang, Yì Suì and Ursa, and Zuko. A page brought Zuko his smudged, tear-stained letter, and he tore it open, nearly damaging the paper in his haste.

_Lord Zuko_ (it read),

_I'm sorry for leaving like this, but I know you'd try to stop me if I told you what I was doing. It's better this way. I'm a danger to you; the Dai Li used me to keep you from escape and if they try again… well, I'd rather not give them that chance.  
__I love you.  
Song._

It hit the floor seconds later, and he ran out of the room, then out of the palace, going after her.

* * *

Song pulled her cloak tighter around her body, looking around the dock. Hopefully crossing the ocean wouldn't be as difficult this time as it had been the last. The doctor choked back a sob and made her way to the ticket booth.

"What are you doing?" The voice behind her was very familiar.

"T-Ty Lee!" gasped Song, turning around.

"Hi," the younger girl said, smiling. "What're you doing?"

"I…" Song looked down.

"Come on." Ty Lee took her hand and led her off where no one could watch or overhear them. "Why are you leaving?"

"I have to," the older girl whispered.

"How come?"

"It— it's not safe for him if I stay," Song explained

Ty Lee blinked, confused. "Huh?"

"I'm a danger to him," Song elaborated, twisting her braid in her hands. "I… he lessens his guard when I'm with them. And makes them stay several yards away."

"He doesn't want them to make you feel uncomfortable." Ty Lee rolled her eyes. "Besides, they shouldn't've listened to him. They're allowed to disobey stupid orders like that, and they should have."

"But they didn't," the older girl said in a whisper. "And the Dai Li took us. And… I think that if they hadn't been able to break him…" She shuddered. "They would have used me against him."

"You can't run away just 'cause he thinks you're more important than he is," Ty Lee said, quietly.

"I won't be used against him," Song said coldly, but tears were running down her face.

"You're right. You won't. We're _not_ gonna let that happen." Ty Lee was crying, too.

"I can't take that risk, Ty Lee. You can't afford it, the _Fire Nation_ can't afford it." Song wiped her eyes again.

"We'll keep you safe," she insisted.

"I have to go," Song said. It sounded as though she was trying to convince herself.

"But people know you're important to him. If you stay, we can protect you. If you leave; if his enemies track you down in the wilderness—" Ty Lee began.

The doctor shook her head and cut the acrobat off. "I won't be important anymore. He'll hate me now."

Ty Lee shook her head as well, emphatically. "No, he won't. He doesn't hate other people for leaving him, he hates himself for giving them reason to leave."

"I have to do this," Song whispered. "I— I know I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life, but I can't…"

The younger girl chewed at her lower lip, searching for another argument. All she could come up with was, "This is wrong."

"I can't think of anything else to do!" Song cried. "I love him, Ty Lee."

"Then come _back_ to him!" Ty Lee shot back.

"I'll only cause him trouble!" the doctor disagreed.

Ty Lee countered, "You'll cause him _worse_ trouble by leaving."

The tearful doctor shook her head. "No… Ty Lee, he _can't_ love me. He _can't_. I'm a foreigner, and a peasant besides. The court will draw and quarter him for that!"

"The court will draw and quarter him for ending the war. Loving you won't change a thing." Ty Lee wasn't entirely certain of that, but she felt it had to be said.

"It will give them more fuel for the pyre," was the half-hearted reply.

"He can take it. He's taken worse hits. And I _know_ he thinks you're worth it. Please, come back," Ty Lee begged now.

"I can't," Song whispered. "I _can't_…"

The younger girl was definitely crying now. "_Please_."

"I'm sorry, Ty Lee. I'm so, so sorry."

"I'm s-sorry we couldn't keep you safe…"

Song embraced the younger girl, then rose and returned to the ticket window.

* * *

Ty Lee was still crying as she made her way back to the palace, but Haru met her halfway there. "You monarch is an idiot," he greeted her, sounding annoyed.

"Wh-what did he do…?" she asked, still in tears.

"He's gone. I think he's gone after _her_." There was no need to ask who the 'her' was.

"She just left the country," Ty Lee told him.

The earthbender let out a vexed noise, but wrapped his arms around her. "And I bet he's right behind her. Come on. We're following them."

"Good."

Haru quickly realised on reaching the Earth Kingdom that he didn't have a chance of tracking Zuko. The other man was simply too skilled at moving swiftly and silently. Thus he suggested they make a detour to a certain town that hosted a yearly tournament for Professional Earthbenders.

Ty Lee agreed readily, and, luckily, Toph was competing.

Haru managed to make his presence known to her with some _very_ careful earthbending, and then they waited behind the arena for her.

She joined them a few minutes later. "Heya. What's up?"

"Sparky and the doctor are idiots, is what," Haru said, quickly summing everything up.

"…So, you need me to help you find the overdramatic Firelord and his overdramatic girlfriend?" Toph clarified.

"That's about it, short stuff," he agreed.

"Don't call me that," she snapped at him.

"Yes, ma'am." Haru sighed. "At least I was able to get a general idea from the General where Song lives. With any luck…"

"Here's hoping," Toph agreed, quietly.

"Pack your things. We'll leave tonight." Haru grinned at her.

"I'll meet you here," the younger bender told him, and headed back into her tournament.

Haru sighed. "Good. We'll definitely find him now."

"Them," Ty Lee corrected.

"Yes," he agreed. A pause, then he asked, "Would it be unethical to bet on her?"

"…What d'you mean?" his girlfriend wanted to know, tilting her head.

"She's gonna win," Haru explained.

Ty Lee rolled her eyes. "It's not unethical to bet on the obvious winner. It's unethical to trip up the others and make them lose."

Haru gave her a horrified look. "Are you kidding? She'd **_kill_** me if I even _thought_ about it!"

That made the acrobat laugh. "Well, you're the one who asked about ethics."

"True. Eh, we'd probably get bad odds anyway, since she's the reigning champion. Let's stock up and meet her back here," the earthbender said after a moment's thought.

"Good plan," Ty Lee said, then stole a kiss.

* * *

Song knew that her mother was worried about her, and had been so since she'd returned home a week before. The broken-hearted doctor, however, just couldn't bring herself to care. She wasn't sure if she would ever forgive herself for doing this to the Firelord, though she could only hope that his hating her would protect him.

Maybe it would stop hurting one day.

And then she saw him, through the trees, when she stepped outside to empty a bowl of dirty water.

With a gasp of shock, she dropped the bowl.

"Song?" called her mother. "Is everything all right?"

On hearing the other voice, Zuko vanished into the trees.

"Y-yeah," Song called back, staring where he'd been. "Everything's… fine."

.

Later that evening, the next time she was alone outside, she saw him again. That glimpse coolly slaughtered her mounting belief that she had only been imagining seeing him before, and she quickly hurried inside.

However, after her mother went to sleep, Song sneaked out of the house. Zuko was waiting for her, perched in a tree. Heart pounding, she looked up at him. What was he _doing_ here?

He climbed down, then bit his lip, looking uncertain.

"Lee…," she whispered, looking poised to flee.

"I — I just wanted to — I _needed_ to — I'm not very good at people," he finally managed to say.

Song bit her lip, but stayed.

"I-I mean…" he continued, hesitantly, "I'm good at just me against like a million people… I'm really good with long odds. Like that. The longer the better. And even when it's just me, facing my cabinet, I can handle that, but… but when it's one on one… just me and someone else… especially someone I… someone who means a lot to me…"

Her eyes went wide. "Lee, what— what are you saying?"

"I…" He hesitated. "What do you want me to do, Song?"

"I just want you to be safe," she whispered. "A-and happy."

"I don't think I can do that alone," he whispered back.

Her jaw dropped slightly. At some point, she'd moved close, close enough that there were scant inches between them and she could feel his breath on her forehead.

"'Cause that's another thing I'm really bad at. Being safe. A-and I'm even _worse_ at being happy. I — until recently, I hadn't really had much cause…" His voice trailed off.

Song looked down. "I'll only bring you trouble, Zuko."

He laughed a little, somewhat bitterly. "Trouble is one of the things I _am_ good at."

She didn't respond, still looking at the ground. He started to reach for her hand, then paused. After a moment, her hand slipped into his. He lit up.

"Zuko, I—" Song began to say.

He squeezed her hand lightly. "You don't have to come back if you don't want to. But I'd like it if you did. Very much."

"I…"

_Do it. Go back with him._

_He'll get hurt._

_No, he won't. Not because of you. You won't let it happen._

"Please?" he whispered, not letting go of her hand.

"You're sure I won't be trouble?" she asked finally, looking up at him.

"No," he said, frankly. "But if being with you causes trouble, I'll fight through it."

A very long pause. "All right."

He almost smiled. And he would have hugged her, but his whole arm was occupied with holding her hand. She stepped closer and smiled up at him, the sadness he'd seen in her eyes before now gone. He kissed her lightly, and she returned it, slipping her free arm around him.

* * *

Toph abruptly stopped Haru and Ty Lee. "He found her, they're both there. Let's give them a minute."

"What?" Haru frowned, then knelt on the ground, seeking out the Firelord and the doctor. "Oh," he said after a moment. "I see." He flushed.

"I don't believe it. Zuko's not the type…" Ty Lee said, frowning.

"I'm pretty sure they still have their clothes on," Toph said dryly.

"For now," agreed Haru.

"They'll stay on," Ty Lee said, seriously. "Zuzu's not going to screw around."

"Pity," muttered the older earthbender. "It would only benefit him in the end."

Ty Lee hit him.

"Ow!" Haru complained, rubbing his shoulder. "I wasn't saying that he _should_…"

"Of course you weren't," his girlfriend replied, rolling her eyes.

The earthbender sighed. "The General is gonna lecture him but good when we get back home. How are we splitting the watches tonight?" he asked them, changing the subject.

"Don't care," Ty Lee said, cheerfully.

"Then I call dibs on the dawn watch," he said promptly.

"I'll take first watch, then," Toph said.

"That works for me," Ty Lee said, then curled up to sleep.

Haru watched her sleep, reaching out and stroking her hair gently, then glanced over at Toph. "Hey. Bandit."

"Yeah?"

He hesitated. "How'd you discover metalbending?"

She frowned a little, then explained. "My parents sent bounty hunters after me. They locked me in a metal box. I broke it."

"I think you got lucky," the older bender muttered, half to himself.

"How'd you figure it out?" Toph asked him.

"I was fighting Dai Li agents," Haru said after a moment. "Trying to keep them off Sparky so he could fight his sister. One of 'em got his chain around my neck." He hesitated. "I figured it out about two seconds before he killed me."

"And you busted the chain?"

"Yes," Haru said simply. "I broke the chain, and then his nose. It killed him." He took the chain from around his waist and held it out to her. "Feel the edges here." He passed her the end of the chain that he'd broken.

She did. "…Ow."

"I'm learning to wield it," he said softly, taking it back.

She just nodded. Silence fell between them, and eventually Haru fell asleep as well.

.

Ty Lee woke him as planned two thirds of the way through the night. He enjoyed the early morning, then woke the girls at the appropriate time. "Do we want to get him now, or wait until they're on the boat home?" he asked.

"Now," they said in unison.

"Better safe than sorry," Ty Lee added. "If we keep our distance, we might not get to him in time if he needs backup."

"Right. Lady BeiFong?" He bowed to Toph.

She punched him. "Don't call me that," she snapped, then headed off to where Zuko waited in the woods just in front of Song's home.

Song wasn't with the Firelord, as it turned out.

"Sparky," said Haru.

"You found me," Zuko said, turning. Behind him, Song slipped from the house carrying a bag.

"Yes," Haru replied. "With some help." He nodded to Toph as Song stared at them all.

"Zuko, what—?" she started to ask.

The Firelord looked a little sheepish. "I kind of ran off without telling anyone…"

Song groaned. "Oh, _Zuko_."

"I wanted to catch up with you," he said defensively. She just shook her head and took his hand; he squeezed hers lightly. "Your mom's okay with this?"

"Yes," Song replied. "She… wasn't happy that I skipped out on my duties in the palace to run away."

Zuko nodded. "Okay."

* * *

Ty Lee had barely left Song's side since all five of them had begun the return trip to the Fire Nation, which left the two earthbenders with plenty of time to spend around each other. Until they'd boarded the boat, this time had been spent earthbending; now they could only talk.

This worked for Haru — he'd wanted to broach this subject with Toph for a time, and for once, they had relative privacy. "Did Ty Lee tell you why Song left to start with?" he asked.

"No, I don't," she admitted. "Figured it might upset them to ask and then Sparky would sulk and be generally annoying."

Haru double-checked to be certain nobody was listening, then lowered his voice. "Zuko and Song were kidnapped directly off palace grounds two days before she left."

"What," Toph said flatly.

"Dai Li agents did it," he explained. "Zuko and Song fortunately managed to escape in under twenty-four hours. Bad news is, all of 'em got clean away. I made sure they wouldn't be able to use the building again, though."

"Did they brainwash either of them?" she asked.

"We don't know," he answered honestly. "Song left the day after they escaped, and he went running off after her. So we haven't had a chance to find out."

"That's _bad_," Toph declared. "If the Dai Li _did_ get to him—"

"I know." Haru looked out over the water. "Worse, even this stunt he just pulled offers no hints either way."

"Yeah..." Toph frowned in the general direction of the horizon.

"With any luck, there won't be too big a mess when we get back."

"Yeah." She didn't sound hopeful.

"And that's just Zuko."

"There's still the question of whether they got to Song, too," Toph agreed.

"And if so, for what purpose." Haru groaned. "Both Zu and Song say that she was left in their cell, but… hell, you know what happened to Jet. Their memories may not be accurate."

"Yeah. And there's no way to check, since you didn't catch any of the Dai Li there." Toph punched the railing.

"You dented it," Haru pointed out. Then, "We did find papers, at least."

"They any help?"

"Depends on how much you want to trust them," the older bender replied, sighing. "One of 'em catalogues what they intended to condition Sparky for — but not a one of them mentions Song."

"Which could mean anything. It's also kinda weird that they were able to escape so easy." Toph frowned, a very uncomfortable thought forming itself in her brain.

"That had occurred to me. And given how _fast_ the Dai Li pulled out—"

"What if the plan was never to condition them at all?" Toph asked, very quietly.

Haru was silent for a long moment. "The General isn't gonna like this at all. Alternately, he's already thought of it and has gotten a head start on not liking it."

"How the hell did they manage to get to him before his security at least sounded some kinda alarm?" she demanded.

"Because Sparky's an idiot," he replied, and explained the circumstances.

"He sent his security away. And they actually _listened_? Doesn't he get like ten death threats a day as it is?!" Toph exploded.

"I think it's more like five, really, but yeah."

Toph sighed.

"I'm thinking he's going to be getting a new security detail," Haru said.

"He should," agreed Toph

"Hand-chosen by Iroh. Wanna bet on whether or not he includes a Li?" he offered with a grin.

She snorted in response. "No bet, he's going to.'

Haru shook his head and sighed. "The sooner we're back home, the happier I'm gonna be."

Toph nodded, then paused. "When did the Fire Nation become home for you?"

The big earthbender considered this. "I think when I started seeing Ty Lee," he said at last.

Toph nodded again, and fell silent.

"You could stay, if you want," Haru said after a moment. "Sparky'd love to have some more friends around."

"I probably will, least for a while," Toph admitted

"Great! I need someone to throw me about the earthbending arena anyway." He grinned down at her.

She grinned back. "I look forward to it."

* * *

After two weeks of travel, they made it back to the capital. Between the two of them, Haru and Toph were able to sneak Zuko and Song into the city without too many people being the wiser. And then Haru took them to see Iroh.

To say the old man was displeased with their little trip would be like saying Princess Azula was slightly unstable.

Three of the four teenagers were prepared for this, but Song had not been.

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked her, in an undertone, after they'd finally finished being lectured.

She nodded, still stunned, and groped for his hand. He took it, and squeezed lightly. Song took a deep breath then, and bowed apologetically to the General. He bowed back. "I'm glad you decided to return."

"How could I not?" Song looked up at Zuko and smiled.

Zuko almost smiled back, then turned back to Iroh. "I guess we should—"

"Yes."

Haru put his hand on Song's shoulder. "C'mon — you should talk to Doctor Chang and that kid of yours."

"All right." Reluctantly, Song let go of Zuko's hand.

"I'll see you later," he promised, catching her hand again quickly and kissing it.

She flushed. "Later, Zuko."

He then turned back to his uncle and the two of them shut the door to talk.

From there, Song decided to talk to Yì Suì. Despite her letter, he'd probably been worried. He was currently in their room, curled up on the windowsill. To judge by his appearance he'd _definitely_ been worried.

"Yì Suì," she said softly, standing in the doorway.

He looked up. "S-song!" He'd lost weight in the weeks she'd been gone — a bad thing, he hadn't had it to lose.

Carefully she didn't let him see her dismay. "I'm back, Yì Suì."

"G-good," he said.

"I won't leave you again," Song said. "I promise."

"Okay." He looked a little relieved.

"I'm sorry for leaving before," she went on, kneeling in front of him.

He nodded. "I-it's okay..."

It really wasn't, but Song sighed and settled down against the wall.

Yì Suì curled up again, staring out the window. Every so often, he snuck a glance over at her — whether it was to make sure she was still there or make sure she was okay was anyone's guess.

After awhile she rose to her feet and moved over to him, making sure to keep three feet of distance between them. "Yì Suì?"

"Y-yeah?" he looked up.

She smiled gently at him. "I need to let Doctor Chang know I'm back. I'll come back when I'm done, all right?"

"K-kay," he said.

She bowed to him rather than hug him, and then made her way to the infirmary.

"Welcome back, Miss Song," Chang greeted her once she was there.

"Thank you, doctor," she said quietly.

"Are you planning on staying?" he asked.

Song blushed. "The Firelord asked me to. Yes, I am."

He smiled a little. "Good."

"It's good to be back," she said after a moment, wondering if he was angry.

"It's good to have you back." Still no indication of feeling.

"Would you like me to pick up my regular shift?" she asked him hesitantly.

"Yes," he said then.

The young doctor brightened. "Wonderful!"

He smiled a little wider at her, and she bowed, relieved that he didn't seem too upset, then went to look for Ursa. Quickly. It didn't take very long to find the older woman out by the turtleduck pond.

Song watched her for a moment, hesitant, then tentatively spoke. "L-lady Ursa?"

Ursa looked up. "You came back."

"Yes," she said softly. "I… Lord Zuko asked me to."

She nodded. "I see."

"I'm sorry for leaving," the girl whispered.

Ursa nodded again.

"I… I panicked, I couldn't think of how else to…"

"Of course."

Song shut up and hung her head. Yì Suì and Chang might have easily forgiven her, as had Zuko, but Lady Ursa… It would take time. Forgiveness would come, but it would take time.

"I'm sorry," the girl whispered again, then fled.


	7. Chapter 7

As autumn became winter, it became abundantly clear to anyone with eyes that Song and Zuko were madly in love, though they made certain to never be together without some sort of chaperone or escort. This didn't stop the rumour mill, of course, but it did help to temper it.

In the middle of winter, Haru and Ty Lee were caught in bed together. The rumour mill went wild with this, and Zuko spent one of the better afternoons in his life restraining Ty Lee's father.

When Haru vanished, the rumour mill went even crazier, only to die down on the earthbender's return a mere two days after the start of spring — with Dai Li prisoners. He proceeded to spend half a day locked in a room with General Iroh, presumably debriefing, and once more he and Ty Lee were rarely seen apart.

Zuko's afternoon meetings with Song, much to their displeasure, grew shorter and shorter as the days grew longer again. There was simply too much Zuko had to do — as it was, it was distressingly common for him to go two or three days without food or sleep.

The only people this really seemed to please were the aides involved in scheduling the Firelord's meetings, and they didn't seem to be aware of how Zuko was stinting himself in order to meet their demands. "It isn't _fair_," complained Song to Ty Lee one day, when the younger girl had dragged her out to the market. "He's so tired, and starting to get depressed because he can't be in five places at once like he thinks he's supposed to be!"

"Seven," Ty Lee corrected absently, holding up a bolt of silk to her face to check the colour. "I think right now he's supposed to be in seven places."

"How can he possibly do that?" Song demanded. "You'd think _someone_ would realise what was going on."

"People have. But Zuzu _insists_ he can handle it." Ty Lee rolled her eyes and picked up a second bolt of cloth.

"Why can't someone just— schedule him? You know, like Doctor Chang is?" Song asked, sounding a little desperate.

"That's what the aides are supposed to be for," Ty Lee replied.

"Well, they're doing a pretty bad job of it!" snapped the doctor, then someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned to see a young nobleman, roughly Zuko's age. In his shadow stood a lanky, unhappy-looking kid. The noble gave both girls a dazzling smile.

Ty Lee rolled her eyes again. "What's up, Lǐ Qí?"

"I couldn't help but overhear your problem," he said in the cheery, irksome tone of one who had obviously been _trying_ to hear every word he could, "and I think I've got just the solution you need!"

The younger noble arched her eyebrow. "Oh?"

Lǐ Qí grinned, and jerked his thumb at the boy in his shadow. "I could loan you Ku-Ji here for a few days — he does my schedule for me."

Song saw fire flare in the boy's eyes when the nobleman named him, and wondered.

"It's not up to us," Ty Lee said, after a moment. "We'll bring it up with His Lordship and get back to you."

Lǐ Qí flapped a hand, unconcerned. "Take all the time you need. Ku-Ji won't have plans. He's fairly bright for a colonist, but he doesn't socialise much, you know?" In a stage whisper, he added, "He's afraid of girls; it's hilarious!" At this, the kid flushed angrily.

Ty Lee's eyes narrowed, but she didn't comment. "Fine. Can you go away now?"

"Very well, ladies, I shall leave you to your… whatever. C'mon, Ku-Ji," he said, flouncing off.

"It's _Kouji_," muttered the boy.

"Whatever."

"Jerk," Ty Lee muttered as they walked away.

"We should hire him," Song said. "He hates that jerk, anyone can see that."

"Oh, definitely. If we can convince Zuzu," was Ty Lee's doubtful reply.

"That's the easy part," Song said with a grin. "Just tell him that he's doing the poor kid a favour. I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping out a kid who's got to put up with that idiot every day."

"Good point." Ty Lee grinned back.

"And if Lǐ Qí was exaggerating, I'm sure we could find the kid work in the palace _some_where," the doctor went on, tossing her braid over her shoulder.

"Definitely," the younger girl agreed.

"Let's go talk to Zu," Song said, taking Ty Lee's hand.

"Lead the way," Ty Lee replied, carefully replacing the fabric she'd been looking at.

.

It took them several hours to get enough time with Zuko to pitch the idea of hiring someone to work his schedule for him — and at first, he didn't take it too well.

"I can handle my own schedule," he said, defensively.

"It isn't about the schedule," lied Song blithely.

"This kid is totally miserable where he is," Ty Lee went on. "You'll be doing him a favour."

"Lǐ Qí mispronounces his name and insults him to other people when he's standing right there," added Song.

Zuko scowled. "All right. Fine. I'll try this out."

The doctor hugged him tightly. "Thanks, Zuko."

"You're welcome," he murmured, hugging her back. He'd lost weight, she could tell through his robe.

Song drew back and smoothed down his hair. "Let's get some food, okay?"

"I don't have time," Zuko explained. "I have somewhere I need to be in five minutes."

Song glanced at Ty Lee for help, but the other girl shrugged. There was really no help for it, until they got the kid there. The doctor sighed and kissed the tip of Zuko's nose. "We'll bring him by tomorrow or the next day," she promised.

"All right. I'll find time to meet with him." He kissed her hand quickly and slipped off.

* * *

Kouji hovered outside the throne room door, uncertain. He'd agreed to this meeting without even pausing to think about it — Lǐ Qí was an annoying ass, and the boy was desperate enough for a new situation at this point that he would have gladly accepted a post moving nightsoil. However, he hadn't realised that he would have to actually _meet_ the Firelord…

Nervously, he ran one hand through his hair and wondered if he had done the smart thing by wearing clothing that was distinctly Earth Kingdom in colour and style. Well, what was done was done.

The door was opened by a stiff, unpleasant-looking aide. "You have five minutes."

The twelve-year-old swallowed hard and nodded, then entered the room cautiously. At the proscribed distance, just as his parents had thumped into him as a kid, he bowed deeply to his monarch.

"Rise."

When he looked up, he saw a much less impressive figure than might have been expected, given the legends already springing up about Zuko Peacemaker (not everyone called him that, but the epithet had begun to stick). Instead of the imposing warrior the legends made him out to be, the Firelord was a thin, weary-looking teenager. "You must be Kouji."

"Yes, sir," Kouji replied, careful to be polite. _Definitely shouldn't've worn the Earth Kingdom stuff_, he thought. He'd mostly done it to piss Lǐ Qí off.

"I'm told you're good at schedules."

"Yes, sir," the boy said again. "It's… something of a gift."

Zuko nodded. "Are you interested in trying to maintain mine?"

_Anything to get away from Lǐ Qí_, Kouji thought. "Yes, sir!"

"All right, then." He stood up, walked over, and handed Kouji a piece of paper — his current schedule.

The boy looked down on it, and his grey eyes went wide. "…you have _got_ to be _kidding_ me," he blurted, forgetting whose presence he was in. "Did a blind hopping llama put this together?!"

"No, my aides did," the Firelord said, wryly. "Sometimes I think they have less brains put together than a blind hopping llama."

Kouji rubbed the back of his neck. "This is gonna be interesting," he said, but he was smiling. _Finally, a challenge!_

"I'm sure it will," the older boy replied. "Any questions?"

"Um… yeah, what's the order of importance, here?" He wrinkled his nose. "Lǐ Qí only goes to parties and stuff, so I don't have much basis for comparison."

"Security, intelligence, and economics are most important. After that, use your judgment."

"Yes, sir," replied Kouji, his mind already racing as he began plotting ways to make sense of the scrap of paper in his hands.

A page joined them in the room, summoned by an unseen bell. "Xìn Xī will show you to the office I've had set up for you, and tell you how to find my study when you're done."

Kouji remembered his manners then and bowed deeply. "Thank you, Lord Zuko."

"Of course," the older boy said. "I'll talk to you next time I have a minute."

The preteen followed the page out of the room and immediately got to work on the schedule. He took a break to eat around mid-afternoon when his stomach refused to be ignored any further, and had turned the mess into something coherent by nightfall.

The Firelord was in his study when he went there to drop it off, sitting in his chair, fighting through some kind of paperwork.

"Um… Lord Zuko?" Kouji said tentatively.

The teenager looked up. "Hey. Any luck?"

Kouji dared to grin at him. "I'm done."

Zuko arched his eyebrow. "Really? Let me see."

Cheerfully, Kouji passed it over.

The Firelord scanned it. One the plus side, as he saw it, he was no longer expected to be in multiple places at once. On the downside… "There's a lot of space in here." The rising tone on the last word almost made it a question.

The twelve-year-old came around to peek over Zuko's elbow and blinked. "Huh?"

"Like, here for example. There's a big empty space."

"…that's night," Kouji said. "You know, when people sleep?"

"Huh," said Zuko, as if this were a new concept. "What about this one?"

"Dinner. And that other one is lunch. And somebody told me you spend time in the gardens with someone, so that's that spot right there…" Kouji sounded uncertain now, and gave the Firelord a worried glance. Had he messed up somehow?

"All right," the Firelord said after a beat. "It's just… a little more blank space than I was expecting."

"You're used to being scheduled by blind hopping llamas, remember?" the boy replied.

"I know, I know. Still." Apparently, the young monarch was more expecting Kouji to find a way for him to avoid having to discover how to clone himself than to find him time to sleep.

"Did I mess up?" Kouji asked, worried now. _No, no, no, I don't want to go back!_

"No, no, I don't think so," said Zuko reassuringly. "I just… I'm a little surprised there's this much blank space."

Kouji made a small noise of disgust. "Lǐ Qí would pitch a fit if he was scheduled for more than three things a day."

The Firelord stared at him. "What, really?"

"Most noble kids are really lazy," the boy said with a shrug. "They're gonna be surprised when they actually have to take over the estates and stuff."

"Oh. Right, yeah," was the absent reply.

Kouji bit his lip and fell silent, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. What was he doing, badmouthing other nobles to the Firelord? He _needed_ this appointment, just to get away from Lǐ Qí — and more importantly, keep from being sent home.

"Well, anyway. Thanks for putting me in one place at a time," said Zuko at last, putting the paper aside.

"It was my pleasure, my lord," Kouji replied.

Zuko almost smiled at him. A bit confused, the boy decided to bow again — after all, it couldn't hurt anything. "You don't have to do that," Zuko assured him. "Not in private, anyway."

"I… I don't?" Kouji asked, confused.

"Nope."

_What does that mean?_ the preteen wondered. _Am I hired? He hasn't brought up anything like contract terms — or does he even worry about that kind of thing?_ "A-all right…"

The Firelord almost smiled again, then turned back to whatever he'd been working on his desk.

Was that a dismissal? Confused, Kouji shifted again.

Zuko turned the paper he was reading upside down, then made a face when it proved just as illegible that way. He muttered something about mandating handwriting courses.

The boy blinked several times. He felt that Ozai's son was just as confusing as Ozai had been terrifying. Eventually, he decided that he'd been dismissed and padded toward the door.

Zuko didn't stop him.

The twelve-year-old closed the door behind him and then leaned against it, letting out a heavy sigh. "This place is confusing," he muttered.

After a long moment, Kouji elected to explore the palace. If he _was_ going to be hired on here, it was best to know the place, right? Keeping one hand to the wall, he started walking.

After about ten minutes of this, a harried-looking nobleman pulled him aside, and told him to go to the library and retrieve a specific text on citizenship law for him. Surprised, Kouji glanced up at him. "A-all right," he said. Well, if the scheduling thing didn't work out, maybe he could be a page. "Um, where's the library?"

The nobleman had already wandered off, and couldn't answer him.

Kouji rolled his eyes and leaned on the wall, trying to get his bearings. After a moment, he nodded, and slipped down a hallway.

Sure enough, he made it to the library. Now to find that book… which was easier said then done. The palace library was the largest in the world, discounting the mythical spirit library of Wan Shi Tong. "Joy," muttered the young man before diving right in. Rather than finding his text, he instead stumbled on a small, fragile-looking boy, curled up asleep in a chair.

Kouji blinked, watching him curiously. He wasn't wearing red… or indeed, any of the colours of the four nations. Instead, the boy was wearing white. Was he mourning? Kouji wondered. Was he even Fire Nation? He looked a bit _too_ fragile for that, to be honest.

The child twitched a little, curling in on himself.

Kouji jerked back, almost afraid he'd disturbed the other boy, who whimpered a little, twitching again.

_Nightmare_, Kouji realised. "Hey," he said softly.

The other boy jerked awake. His eyes widened when he saw Kouji, and he didn't say anything.

_Is he scared of _me_?_ "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," Kouji said. "I was trying to find this book, but I don't know where anything here is…"

"O-okay," he stammered, then slid off his chair. "Wh-what book?"

The younger boy took a step back, since the white-clad one seemed to like distance, and told him the title.

"D-do you w-want me t-t'get it?"

"You don't have to," Kouji replied. "If you'd just tell me where it is, I'm sure I can find it myself."

"I-I'm n-not good at d-directions…"

"All right," the younger boy relented, "then you can get it."

The boy in white disappeared deeper into the library, and returned about ten minutes later with the scroll. "H-here…" He held it out, careful to keep his hand as far to the end as he could without dropping it.

Kouji accepted it, taking care not to get too close to the other boy. "Thank you." Taking a step back to make him comfortable, the twelve-year-old bowed.

The smaller boy bowed back.

He turned to go, and paused. "My name is Kouji."

"Y-Yì Suì," the other boy stammered out.

"It's nice to meet you." Kouji grinned at him, then went off to track down the noble and give him the text.

* * *

It had now been six weeks since Kouji had been brought to the palace, and Zuko's other aides had made a habit of sniping at him every chance they got. They resented this unranked child barging in on their business, particularly since the Firelord hadn't made his position there official — he kept forgetting.

For the most part, Kouji ignored it — he was away from Lǐ Qí, and he didn't have to go home — but he wore Earth Kingdom clothing almost exclusively, to stand out and to spite them, and he made certain his topknot was round in the style of Earth, not fanlike in the style of Fire. Never did he snipe back, however, unwilling to risk his precarious position.

One day, Zuko called Kouji into his study.

Nervous, the boy approached, wondering if he was going to be sent away now.

"I'm sorry I've put this off so long," the Firelord began.

"Put what off?" Kouji asked, a little confused.

"Making your position here official."

Kouji's heart leaped, and his face lit up. "Really?"

The Firelord gave him his little almost smile. "Yes. Really."

"That's great!"

"I'm not sure exactly what kind of contract you were expecting. So I thought we'd discuss that now." This was supposed to be Zuko's lunch break — it hadn't taken Kouji long to realize that he almost never used it for its intended purpose. However, Kouji was a bright young man, and had arranged for lunch to be delivered to the Firelord during these time periods anyway.

"All right," he agreed.

After the discussion was over, Zuko almost smiled again. "All right, I'm glad that's finally settled."

"Yeah," the boy agreed, a little bit stunned at how friendly Zuko had been during the negotiations, even when they argued on whether or not the boy doing a man's job should get a man's contract, or whether or not Kouji _needed_ to have a guardian. In the end, his contract was an adult contract, save only for the clause that made Zuko his guardian, until he was of age or they decided to terminate his employment, whichever came first.

Both Firelord and colonist were pleased by this, though Kouji privately wondered precisely what being Zuko's ward would entail.

As the next several days showed, absolutely nothing had changed in their relationship, other then perhaps a little more friendliness in their interactions. The boy soaked up that friendliness like a sponge, to the point that Song began encouraging Zuko to spend more time with him. "He needs a friend, Zuko," she would tell him.

Zuko, therefore, made a habit of inviting Kouji to sit in his study with him while he was fighting through paperwork. The boy accepted these invitations, and they would talk while Zuko did battle. After the first two times, Kouji began to help him out, taking over the more illegible documents and rewriting them for the Firelord's benefit.

The older boy's gratitude for this assistance showed just how used he was to this difficulty.

And then, on the Firelord's eighteenth birthday, Zuko was presented with a gift from a very shy Kouji.

Startled, he asked, "What's this?"

"A-a present, L— er, Zuko," the boy replied, shifting from foot to foot.

"Thank you," the young man said, still sounding rather boggled.

"You're welcome," Kouji said with a shy smile.

Zuko opened the box to reveal a small dagger.

"I… I thought you might like to have something like that," the twelve-year-old stammered. "So nobody would know you had it…"

"I appreciate it. Really." He got through his surprise at the gift to almost smile at his friend.

Kouji brightened instantly at that.

"Thank you."

.

There were several things Zuko disliked about his new position. Not the least of which was sitting through Official Functions, such as the one planned for his birthday. _It's my birthday, why can't I do what _I _want to do for a change?_ he fumed, when he finally managed to escape.

And then he was pulled into a shadowy corner, and soft lips pressed against his. He relaxed a little. Song made everything better. "Evening."

She smiled up at him. "Evening, Zuko."

"How're you doing?"

"Better since I got out of there." She sighed and leaned her head against his chest.

"I know what you mean," he muttered, sliding his arm around her. "It's _my_ birthday, dammit, why can't I do what _I_ want?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "What do _you_ want to do, then?"

"Not a long boring party where everyone wants to dance with me and make me do things and—"

Song kissed him again. It was several moments before that kiss was broken, and Song was breathing heavily, looking up at him with dark, inviting eyes.

"Oh, wow," he said, when he finally regained his ability to speak.

"Is this what you want, Lord Zuko?" she asked him, lips inches from his.

_Yes_.

"I—" He paused a minute. "Yes, I mean, yes, of course, but— I-I don't know, maybe… I just… I think it's probably better if we wait until after we're married…"

She blinked at him, then after a long moment, she said, "If you're offering what I think you are," she kissed him again, "then the answer is yes."

He froze for a moment, mentally going over what he'd just said. He flushed darkly. "That— I— I had a whole speech planned and everything, I wasn't planning on asking yet, I—"

She shut him up with yet another kiss. It seemed to be working well so far.

He relaxed a little against her, hoping he kept his self-control enough to maintain his resolve. Song, however, seemed willing to hold to his request to wait; after a few minutes, she pulled away and looked up at him, amusement glinting in her brown eyes. "Is there anything else you want to do, Zuko?"

"I don't know," he said, honestly.

"We could go for a walk," she suggested.

"All right."

She slipped her hand into his and led him outside. He followed willingly, twining his fingers with hers. It was, perhaps, inevitable that they wound up by the turtleduck pond. He was happy to while the time with her there. He knew he'd pay for it and not be able to sleep the next night, trying to make up for lost time, but it was worth it. There, standing by water that reflected the moon, she kissed him again, taking care to respect the boundaries he'd set.

* * *

While everyone was pre-occupied with the festivities, a Dai Li agent snuck into the palace, searching for the planted subject. On finding his target, he quietly woke him, whispered the trigger phrase, and smiled softly as the tool slipped into the receptive state. Orders were given, the tool was forced back to sleep, and the agent slipped out.

No one noticed, save the curiously blank-eyed noblewoman who ran messages for an ally of the Dai Li in the palace. Such was her conditioning that she would not remember seeing him.

* * *

The next morning, Firelord Zuko was in an unusually good mood.

Kouji noticed, and commented on it. "Did something happen at the party, Lord Zuko?" The boy had been permitted to skip the party, since he was only twelve and nobody else his age was going to be there. The fact that the only person his age with whom he interacted was Yì Suì had not been commented upon.

"After," he said, unusually brightly.

Kouji arched an eyebrow at him. Zuko told him what had happened when he met Song in the hallway after the party, and the younger boy laughed. "So you're engaged now?"

"I think so, yes," he said, still oddly bright.

"That's great!" Kouji exclaimed, grinning up at him.

Zuko almost smiled back.

"Anyway," said the boy, deciding the happy time was over, "I've got your schedule for today."

"All right, let's see it."

Work progressed as usual, until that afternoon, when Zuko returned to his study after his meeting with Song. He opened the door, drowsily content…

And it exploded.


	8. Chapter 8

Roughly half the palace came running, and proceeded to be absolutely useless and in the way until Song forced her way through and took charge, directing some guards to keep people back while she tried to ascertain the damage done.

The explosion had come from inside the study, blasting Zuko, the door, and a pile of debris across the hallway. The Firelord was unconscious under the rubble. Song carefully began to pick through the wreckage, sending one page off for Doctor Chang in the meantime.

Careful not to move her fiancé (no matter how unofficial it actually was), Song began to clean and bandage his wounds. He was much less hurt that he would have been had he been even half a foot closer to the source of the explosion. Most worrisome was the bloody, rapidly swelling lump on the back of his head.

Kouji came running up, his silver eyes wide in horror. "Oh, no… Zuko!"

Chang was hot on his heels, along with a pair of guards carrying a stretcher. Together, the two doctors got the unconscious Firelord on the mat and had him whisked to the infirmary, leaving Iroh and Zuko's guards to pick through the mess of the study, while Kouji was sent along to postpone every meeting indefinitely.

The bomb itself was their primary objective—the guards posted along that hallway all swore up and down that no one had been near the study save Zuko himself in at least six hours. In the middle of all the activity, Haru returned from his latest excursion to the earth kingdom. "Koh's legs," he breathed.

"No kidding," Ty Lee agreed.

"How's Sparky doing?"

"Still out."

"Do they know how it got there yet?"

She shook her head. "That's what they can't figure. Well, that, and how it managed to take so long to go off.

"Take me there?" Haru asked her.

"To Zuzu or the study?"

"I'll do more good at the study," Haru replied. "What am I going to do in the infirmary besides get in the way?"

"Okay." She took his hand and led him to what was left of Zuko's study.

Haru stopped outside the door and fell into what some of the jokers around the palace were starting to call the Scrying Stance; after a moment, his green eyes snapped open and he slipped inside, making his way to Zuko's utterly destroyed desk.

Ty Lee followed, picking her way carefully across the debris-strewn floor.

"Stay back," he cautioned her.

"Nuh-uh," she objected. "If this goes unstable, you need someone to pull you back."

"Ty Lee, _I found it_," Haru said.

She froze. "The bomb?"

"Yes." He was very carefully pulling pieces of wood aside. "Send someone for the general."

"Okay." She picked her way over to the door, stuck her head out, and sent one of the guards running. By the time the General turned up, the remains of the explosive had been cleared of debris.

"Can you tell anything about it?" the old man asked.

"Other than it being a bomb?" Haru sighed. "Not a damn thing."

"We need to get it to a safer room," Iroh instructed, and Haru nodded.

"Makes sense."

They managed to carry it to a small, stone, not-structurally-vital room on the edge of the palace without accidentally setting it off again. By this time, Toph had joined them. "…I need someone to help me write a letter," she said. "Teo might be able to help us with this."

"I'll do it," Haru volunteered.

"Thanks," the younger earthbender said.

The young man nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "Were there any new hires while I was gone?" he asked. "Servants, aides?"

"One aide, kid named Kouji," Toph replied.

Haru blinked. "…a kid?"

"Yeah. He's like a year younger than I am."

"What's a kid doing being a— never mind, I don't want to — yes, I do want to know. How does a twelve-year-old get to be an aide?"

"He was handling some jerkface noble's social schedule, and totally miserable, and Zuzu was in like seven places at once, so me and Song convinced him to offer Kouji a job," Ty Lee explained.

"Huh." He frowned. "Where'd he come from?"

"One of the colonies. Iroh knows which specifically," was Ty Lee's answer.

Haru stiffened slightly, and was silent for a long moment.

"He didn't put together this bomb," Toph said, quietly. "First of all, he wouldn't know how. Second of all, he adores Sparky."

"…granted," Haru said, sighing. "I think all this chasing after the Dai Li has made me paranoid,"

"Yeah," Toph said.

"Let's go write that letter."

* * *

Teo arrived in under a week; an airship had been sent to pick him up from the Northern Air Temple. "Teo!" Ty Lee ran out to greet him. Despite how little time they'd spent together, they'd become fast friends after the last battle, and exchanged frequent letters.

The younger boy laughed and reached up to hug her. "Hey, Ty Lee. Toph said you guys had something interesting for me?"

"Yeah. Come on, I'll take you to it." She started leading him into and through the palace. "How're things?"

"Pretty quiet. Disturbingly so, in fact, given my dad's latest project." He flinched. "I wish he'd never found black water."

"…Oh, right. Um. Well…we were hoping you could help with…well, it's kinda a long story." Suddenly, asking Teo to investigate _more_ explosions sounded a little like overloading the young man.

"I've got time."

"Well, a week ago, someone planted a bomb in Zuzu's study."

Teo let go of the wheels on his chair, though the chair itself kept moving. "_What_?"

"Someone planted a bomb in Zuzu's study," Ty Lee repeated. "His desk, actually. And then it was at least six hours before it went off."

"…I think I see where the problem is," the teenager said. "Do you know what was in it?"

"We _think_ blasting jelly. But we're not sure."

"Is there any way it could have been triggered by him opening the door?"

She shook her head. "He was in and out of there at least twice during those six hours."

"Okay, then we can rule a malfunction in the firing mechanism out."

"I…guess?"

"I'll figure it out, don't worry." He grinned at her.

She grinned back. "'Course you will."

Then they were at the room, and Teo wheeled over to the table that had been set up for him. He got to work right away, shutting everything else out. Ty Lee hung around, to be a sounding board if he needed one, and to remind him to eat and sleep when it became necessary. Hopefully he'd listen better than Zuko did.

Teo made use of her quickly enough, explaining what he was doing to her in a manner she could understand — and after a few hours, he had a list of ingredients.

"So, what does that tell us?" she asked.

"That whoever made this knew what they were doing. And probably makes explosives for a living. Or maybe as a hobby, it's hard to tell." Teo doodled on a bit of parchment as he talked.

Ty Lee made a face. "Anything about how it took so long to go off?"

"Working on it."

"Okay."

.

Finally, almost two days later, Teo sighed. "I think I've got it."

"Yeah?"

The following explanation was full of long words and terms Ty Lee didn't understand.

"So, um, the short, small-words version would be…it was on a timer?" she said, after nearly ten minutes of trying to puzzle out what he'd meant.

Teo paused. "…yes."

"Okay, then."

The boy pushed some wayward hair from his eyes and sighed. "Let's go tell General Iroh."

"Good idea," she said. "Then maybe we can go see Zuzu, I think they're letting him out of the infirmary today."

"That'd be great!" said Teo, lighting up.

Ty Lee grinned in response, then led him to the General's office.

Once there, Teo started his report, stopped, glanced at Ty Lee, then sheepishly said, "It was on a timer."

Iroh nodded. "Do you know how long it was set for?"

"No. The mechanism itself was all but destroyed; I could try to re-build it, but it would take… a very long time."

"Can you give us any type of ballpark more specific than at least six hours before it exploded?"

"Give me a day and I probably could," said the boy confidently.

"All right. Thank you."

"My pleasure, General," said Teo, bowing awkwardly in his chair.

The old man smiled, and bowed back, then returned to his weather reports.

From there, Ty Lee took Teo to see Zuko.

Zuko was just coming out of the infirmary—his ribs were still taped up and there were other bruises and indications of the explosion, but he was on his feet. "Hey, Teo."

"Zuko!" cried the younger man in delight, wheeling over to give Zuko a gentle around the waist.

"How's it going?" he asked, hugging back somewhat awkwardly and painfully.

"Pretty good, actually," Teo replied. "Just figured a bunch of stuff out."

"Oh?"

Teo passed on everything that he'd learned to Zuko — including one thing he'd kept from Iroh for the time being: the presence of black water in the explosive. "There's maybe two known sources of black water right now," he finished. "Both in the Earth Kingdom."

"…Great." _It all keeps coming back to the Dai Li_.

Teo was oblivious to his thoughts. "Should make it easier to track down who did this."

"Mmhmm," Zuko said absently.

The younger boy glanced over at him. "Everything okay, Zu?"

"Yeah, fine."

"You seem kinda… I dunno. Out."

There was a long pause, and Teo watched him worriedly.

After a few more seconds, Zuko jerked himself out of whatever reverie he'd fallen into. "Sorry about that, thoughts ran away from me for a second."

"More than a second. Anyway, that's everything I've found so far."

"Keep me posted?"

"Glad to."

Zuko almost-smiled at him. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

* * *

Haru waited until right before the General went off-duty to speak to him. The less people around to overhear this, the better.

"What is it?" the old man asked him.

"It's about that kid," was the quiet reply. "Whatsisname, Kouji."

"What about him?"

"What colony is he from?" Haru asked.

"New Sozin. Why do you ask?"

The earthbender glanced at the ceiling. "No reason."

This earned him a sceptical look, and Haru coughed into one hand. "I might stop by there on my next trip out."

"Be careful," the old man cautioned him. "Do not get carried away."

Haru bowed and took his leave. Two weeks later, he was gone, leaving with Toph and Teo to head back to the Earth Kingdom. While the Greatest Earthbender in the World intended to hang out with Teo at the Northern Air Temple for several weeks, however, Haru split away from them early on to make his way to New Sozin.

The earthbender was rather unsurprised to discover the a Dai Li cell near the colony. The surprising part was that someone had apparently beat him to it, or so the young local showing him the remains said. And he had been correct — the place was a mess, with leftover bloodstains, torn up floors, and broken furniture. Haru arched an eyebrow as he turned around to look at his guide. "This place certainly got trashed but good. They accounted for all the Dai Li?"

The boy, named Ichiro, snorted rudely. "Of course we did. Between three professional earthbenders, two firebenders, five soldiers from both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, _and_ a pair of Lis? The Dai Li never had a chance."

Haru laughed. "Right, good point. Come on. There's got to be papers _somewhere_ around here."

Unfortunately, the only papers they found had been dumped in water or burned, so they were utterly illegible. When Haru swore extensively, Ichiro arched an eyebrow. "You must've really wanted those papers."

The earthbender paused, considering. It was plain to anyone with eyes that Ichiro was related to Kouji, as the two looked almost exactly alike. It was also fairly obvious that Ichiro was a dangerous young man: even if he hadn't implied that he'd been involved in taking out the Dai Li cell, Haru had first found him practising fairly advanced firebending forms, and the farmboy wielded a kusari-gama the way Azula wielded fire. If Ichiro took offence to Haru's suspicions…

Eventually, the older boy carefully said, "Well, Zuko has a new aide from your colony…"

"That'd be Kouji," Ichiro replied cheerfully. "My brother. Kid's a near genius, and he wrote when—" The firebender cut himself off, blinking. "Wait. You think the Dai Li—?"

"Better safe than sorry," Haru said apologetically.

Luckily, Ichiro only laughed. "I wouldn't worry about it," he told the other with a grin. "The only times Kouji ever went off on his own were when Yui—" He abruptly cut himself off again, golden eyes going wide.

"Ichiro?"

"Sozin's _balls_," breathed the firebender, and he bolted out of the cell.

* * *

It was a late fall evening, and Zuko was spending it, as was his habit, working at his desk — he was supposed to be eating, but, as usual, he'd forgotten. There was a soft knock, and then the door opened, letting Kouji in. "Hey, Zu," he said with a small smile.

The Firelord looked up. "Hey. What's up?"

"You need to eat," said the boy matter-of-factly. "And before you try to say that there are more important things to do, I was thinking we could swipe some of the pomegranates by the wall."

The teenager considered for a long moment. "...Fine. Ten minutes."

Kouji laughed and grabbed his hand. "C'mon, Zu!" He eagerly led the older boy out to the wall.

Zuko followed, a little less unwillingly than he pretended. Truth to tell, it was nice to stretch his legs. And it was nice to see Kouji acting like the twelve-year-old he was, rather than the adult he tried to be. Besides, he loved pomegranates, and someone had probably told Kouji that.

The boy took a running start and leapt towards one of the lower-hanging branches on the tree, batting at the fruit hanging on it. Boy and fruit then tumbled to the ground, Kouji trying to turn in the air so he wouldn't squish it on landing.

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah, fine," Kouji laughed. Then his eyes shot to something past Zuko's shoulder, and widened. "ZUKO!"

"What—"

Kouji's free arm slammed against the ground, and the earth under Zuko's feet pitched, throwing the Firelord to one side—

And a large boulder, heavy enough to crush a skull, lodged into the ground. From the angle it had been fired from, it would have certainly killed the Firelord.

"Kouji, _run_!" the teenager shouted, preparing to defend himself.

Instead, Kouji rolled onto his feet, running between Zuko and the place the attack had come from. To the Firelord's shock, the boy slid into a _bending_ stance.

"Kouji, get out of here!" Zuko cried, shooting fire over the younger boy's head at their attackers.

"I won't leave you!" A boulder slammed towards them; Kouji raised his hands quickly and opened his fists, and the stone shattered into dust that rained over the two of them.

"Go! Get out of here! I need you to be _safe_!"

"I wo—"

Stone hands slammed into Kouji's shoulders, throwing him to the ground. Before he could rise, one of the attackers yelled, "Kouji! Your sister needs you!"

The boy went utterly still.

Zuko's eyes widened, then narrowed. _Oh, _hell_ no_. He dodged another hit, then ran for Kouji and slapped him as hard as he could, hoping that would snap him out of it.

The twelve-year-old gasped, and his eyes, curiously blank, returned to normal. "Zuko—?"

"_Run_," the Firelord whispered, then turned back to the Dai Li.

Horrified, Kouji obeyed.

Zuko, now completely surrounded, bared his teeth in a feral sort of grin. "Bring it on."

And then a chain wrapped around the neck of one of the surrounding men, jerking him back. In the empty space that was left, blue fire flared, catching the earthbender next to where he had been moments before. Not a second later, Haru had barrelled through the gap, his eyes blazing and his trophy chain held at the ready. He stopped just beside Zuko.

The Dai Li seemed intent on keeping these reinforcements away from the Firelord — who was taking an alarming number of hits.

Noting this, Haru yelled, "_Ichiro_!" as his chain lashed out again. A boulder shot for Zuko, only to be struck by the bladed end of a kusari-gama and shattered. The scythe was jerked back to its owner — _Kouji_?

No, not Kouji. This young man was several years older. A little disoriented, Zuko dragged himself to his feet once more to keep fighting back — and was promptly knocked down again. Not-Kouji came to stand just behind the Firelord as Haru rotated to stand in front of him; together, the two young men began a strange defence of blue fire, leaping rocks, and whirling chains.

Zuko had never felt quite so useless in all his life.

Between Haru's sturdiness and Not-Kouji's near-uncanny speed and grace, the attacking Dai Li were taken down. Zuko, as soon as the threat was neutralized, dragged himself to his feet and stumbled off after Kouji.

"Hey, wait!" yelped the earthbender. He ran after Zuko and caught him by the shoulder. "You need to get checked out."

The Firelord jerked away, wobbled a bit, and shook his head. "I'm going after Kouji."

"Zu, Kouji was—"

"Controlled, I know. Wasn't his fault."

"You don't know what else they've triggered him to do," Haru argued. "I know it isn't his fault, but you can't be alone with him."

"You can follow if you want."

"At least get healed up first!" exclaimed Haru.

"_No_. I'm going to find him _now_, he's just a kid, he'll get lost — "

"Or worse," said Not-Kouji. "He won't."

"_Exactly_. I'm already behind, I need to catch up."

"You can barely walk straight!" Haru snapped, exasperated.

"I'm _fine_," Zuko snapped back. "And I'm going after Kouji now. You can come with me or not, whatever you prefer."

"Sparky—"

"Just _go_," said Not-Kouji. "I'm going too. Wings can carry a message to the Dragon of the West when we stop for the night."

"Fine," the Firelord muttered, then continued stumbling off after his young aide.

After several hours, it took both Haru and Not-Kouji — actually named Ichiro, and as it turned out, he was Kouji's older brother — to convince Zuko to stop for awhile. It also took some threats of sinking the other teenager waist-deep into the earth on Haru's part.

Zuko, somewhat sulkily, complied to a brief rest, and half-collapsed onto the ground, pale as snow. Haru took advantage of this to treat Zuko's injuries while Ichiro wrote a message to General Iroh, explaining what had happened and what they were doing, before sending it to the palace attached to his pet sparrowkeet.

When Haru was done cleaning him up, Zuko impatiently demanded they get moving again right away. The other two, however, insisted they rest longer, since by now Kouji had to have collapsed for some sleep.

"Then we should use this time to narrow the gap between us, catch up to him faster," Zuko pointed out.

"Don't worry about it," said Ichiro calmly. "Kouji is a glorified clerk. He can't get too far ahead."

* * *

Clinging tightly to the papers shoved in her hands before he and Haru had gone pelting off, a slender preteen tried to find the general's office. It wasn't easy — the palace was rather labyrinthine to any unused to it, and the fear she was picking up from her twin brother wasn't helping her orient herself at all.

Eventually, however, she succeeded. The old man looked up, a little surprised to see an unfamiliar girl there. "Can I help you?"

"Haru sent me," was what she started to say. What actually happened was that she said, "Haru se—" before sharp pain assailed both of her shoulders, followed by pain on her back. She gasped, "Kouji!" and dropped the papers.

"Miss? What's wrong? What happened?"

She shook her head, trying to cut back on her awareness of her brother. "Haru sent me," she managed to get out this time, gathering the papers again. "He said I needed to give them to you — he and my brother went running off to take care of something, I don't know what…"

Iroh scanned the papers and went several shades paler. Only the child's presence kept him from swearing.

And then the entire palace shook.

"Wait here," he told the girl, then ran off to find the source of the shaking.

He found Zuko's guards, all dead, and a number of Dai Li agents, some unconscious, some dead. One of the pomegranate trees was burning, and that portion of the wall was a loss. Iroh quickly put the fire out, and summoned guards to take the surviving agents.

Soon after, a frightened page came running. "The Firelord is missing!" she blurted to Iroh.

Once again, Iroh refrained from cursing. Barely. The girl, not even ten years old, hopped from foot to foot, unsure of what to do. "Go back inside," he told her, a little more tersely than he usually was with pages.

The girl bowed and fled.

Iroh gave instructions for the guards to search for any sign of his nephew, then returned to his study and the girl who'd brought those papers.

She had curled up in a corner of his office and was crying quietly, so soft that he could barely hear her.

He reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Miss?"

Startled, the girl gasped and looked up at him with wide amber eyes.

And there it was in the structure of her face, the curve of the jaw, the shape of the eyes themselves, if not the colour: Kouji.

Seeing that, he silently offered her a hug — he'd ask her for details after she'd cried herself out. The child was quick to accept the comfort he offered; she might have been nearly thirteen, but she was clearly afraid, and had been left alone in a strange place. He soothed her as best he could, and after several minutes, she calmed down enough to be coherent.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?" he asked, quietly, after making sure she was feeling better.

"What do you want to know?" she asked in turn, wiping her eyes.

"Anything you can tell me," he replied.

"I… don't know a lot," she admitted. "Ichi-ni and Haru didn't talk where I could hear."

"Every little bit helps," he assured her.

Hesitantly, the girl told him what she knew: that Haru had arrived at their colony, seeking out a Dai Li cell; that Ichiro, having been part of the group that had taken it out a year before, had volunteered to guide Haru there; that both young men had arrived back at her home at a flat run, where Ichiro had broken into their father's study and gone digging through the desk; that Haru had had to hold Ichiro back and yell at him once he had seen some of the papers there; that Ichiro had told her to pack her things in the scariest voice she'd ever heard from him; and that they'd left as soon as she was.

Iroh nodded. "Thank you for your help," he said. "Why don't I find a room for you to stay in, as long as you're here?"

"Okay," she said, very quietly.

He smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine." He rang for a page, to whom he gave instructions to set up a room for the girl. Meekly, the girl went off after the page, leaving Iroh time to consider the implications of the papers, the fact that Haru had yet to report in, and the missing Firelord.

* * *

Years of chasing after his twin sister had conditioned Kouji for long-distance travel more than Ichiro realised. Despite several months of cushy living, the preteen still remembered how to forage and hunt, and how to keep going for hours at a time without completely exhausting himself. After Zuko had told him to run, he hadn't stopped moving until he was near collapse; by altering between jogging and walking, Kouji was able to put that off for hours. When exhaustion finally brought him down, he soaked his aching feet in the river he'd decided to follow while he ate, then he crawled under a bush to sleep.

The boy woke screaming, having relived his unwitting betrayal of Zuko in his dreams — only this time, he had been utterly frozen, unable to help his beloved Firelord, only able to watch in horror as the Dai Li crushed him in a rockslide. Fighting the tears that threatened to overwhelm him, Kouji crept out of his nest and began moving again.

Zuko had ordered him to run.

He would obey as though it was the last order the Firelord would ever give — which it very well might have been.

The boy kept up this routine for some time, very quickly losing track of the days, focusing only on escaping his shame, his self-hatred, and any possible chance of being used against Zuko again. When he ran out of land, he bartered passage to another island in the archipelago. Eventually, he wound up stumbling across ruins in an architectural style he didn't recognise; the shock cut through his mental daze and froze him for several minutes as he just _stared_.

"Ozai's beard," he whispered, then made his way towards those ruins. Maybe he could hide there.

Maybe forever.

Something crooned behind him.

Startled, Kouji paused on the edge of the wall he'd just started climbing down and turned his head. On the ground beneath him was a three-foot-long black lizard with delicate, half-formed wings.

"What the…?"

The lizard crooned again and tried to hop up to join him, fluttering its still-useless wings madly.

"No, wait!" cried Kouji, letting go with one hand and reached down to try and stop her. "Don't—" The rock under his other hand crumbled, and Kouji plummeted to the ground.

The lizard shrieked, but the boy didn't move. He lay where he'd fallen, looking nothing so much like a child's discarded doll — except for the slow trickle of blood from under his head.

The lizard remained, keening over him, until help arrived.


	9. Chapter 9

It was the pain that woke him.

He felt as though a miniature octosquid had got loose in his head and was beating his brain with eight hammers. Everything was dark, but then again, that made sense, because his eyes were shut. Carefully, he opened one, then shut it with a groan. The light had made the pain in his head a million times worse.

A soft voice crooned next to him and a rough tongue licked his cheek.

_What…?_ Rather than open his eyes, he tried moving his hand up to see what had just licked him.

It was some kind of winged lizard — a _dragon_? But dragons were extinct! He'd learned that in school—

School? He'd gone to it. He knew about schools. But he couldn't _remember_ anything about—

Oh, _spirits_.

"You're awake. Good," a male voice said from the doorway.

Startled, he opened his eyes again, and yelped this time as he squeezed them shut. Nope, still a bad idea.

"You'll need to stay down for a while. Then perhaps you can help us care for the babies; that one seems to like you."

"Where… where am I?" he asked.

"You're in the Sun Warrior city," the male voice replied.

The Sun Warriors? But they were gone too, right?

Apparently not. He moaned. "I can't remember—" Anything. There was nothing there. Parents, siblings, friends, enemies, nothing. Not even a name.

"That happens sometimes, when you hit your head," the other replied. "You're wearing Fire Nation palace colours. We've sent a message to them, someone should come and claim you soon. In the meantime, we'll look after you."

Palace? That was wrong, wasn't it? He wasn't from the Fire Nation, he was from the Earth Kingdom. But he wasn't Earth Kingdom — colony. He was a colonist. Why was he in the colours of the palace? Distressed and hurting, the boy whimpered.

"Just lie there. Our doctor says you'll maybe be able to get up again in a few days. For now, stay where you are. The black dragonet will look after you." Receding footsteps meant the owner of the male voice was leaving.

"What happened to me?" the boy asked in a whisper, not expecting an answer.

* * *

It was nearly a day before Kouji could open his eyes without the light hurting him, and two more before the ache in his skull subsided. By that point, at least, he had managed to remember his name — and was going utterly berserk with the enforced idleness. When the man who had first spoken to him on his initial awakening again brought up the possibility of looking after the baby dragons, Kouji leapt at the chance to be useful.

Amused by the boy's enthusiasm, the man — Ham Ghao was his name — showed him how to handle the reptiles. Through the entire demonstration and explanation, the black dragonet padded after Kouji like a second shadow, which he found amusing. After all, he was usually the one doing the following.

Kouji grasped for that small fragment of memory, hoping there would be more attached to it, but it hung alone, suspended in nothing. Sighing, he returned his attention to Ham Ghao.

For six days, Kouji lived with the Sun Warriors, caring for the baby dragons — referred to alternately as dragonlings or dragonets — and trying to recall his past. He had more success with the former than with the latter, which the Sun Warriors didn't mind at all. However, no less than four of the girl-children Kouji's age seemed to find the amnesiac stranger a mysterious and romantic figure. Soon, the boldest of them began to seek him out.

As it turned out, a concussion and memory loss was _not_ enough to cure Kouji of his fear of girls.

To escape her attentions, the boy wound up fleeing inside a cave. Hearing a noise, he turned around, thinking it was the _object of his search. Instead, there was a tall man in green clothes with a circle on the chest. "Who are you?" Kouji asked, taking a wary step back. He wasn't fast enough — the man stepped forward and pressed a damp cloth over the boy's nose and mouth. Kouji tried to back-pedal, but then he tripped and everything went _black dragon.

The boy cried out and fell to his knees, trembling, his grey eyes wide. The black dragon, who had indeed been the cause of the noise behind him, crooned softly as she climbed into his lap and then partly up his chest, hooking her claws in his shirt to rub the underside of his chin with the top of her head in an attempt to comfort him. Kouji automatically wrapped his arms around her, trying to calm down.

The dragonet mewled, and he looked down at her in surprise. "I… I don't know," he whispered. "I just... remembered something scary. I guess being in here brought it back — the scary thing happened in a cave."

She made an odd chattering noise, and the boy frowned. "I… think I was looking for something — no," he corrected himself, more certain now, "some_one_." Biting his lip, he tried to remember _who_ he had been looking for, and ever so slowly, details began to fill in.

Annoyance — somebody, his brother, had promised they would practise bending together, and she'd run away again, so he had to go find her because _he_ always _could_.

A face — like his, but rounder, softer, eyes amber instead of grey, mischief everywhere he looked — it belonged to her, to his twin sister.

"Yui," his mouth said.

It was as though speaking her name loosed a flood. Memories washed over him in a flash, one after another, every memory dragging three more with it. In a space of seconds, most of the major events, and no few of the minor ones, of Kouji's childhood flooded his mind: the day he'd realised he liked the Earth Kingdom more than his mother country, his terror on realising he was an earthbender, the time Ichiro had caught him bending and revealed that _he_ was a firebender and had kept that secret so he wouldn't be sent back to the Fire Nation, the vow that he, Ichiro, and Yui had made to keep their love for the Earth Kingdom a secret from their xenophobic, jingoist parents…

There were still holes, of course, and everything stopped where the man in green had knocked Kouji unconscious, but at least half of his childhood was no longer empty. Shaken, the boy put the dragonet down and emerged from the cave to tell the Sun Warriors what he remembered —

And saw Ichiro.

* * *

After a week of travel, two letters, carried by hawks of a breed neither Haru nor Ichiro had ever seen before, were dropped on Zuko's head within hours of one another. After reading the first, the young Firelord said he knew where Kouji was. The second told them that the boy had hit his head and lost his memories.

"That… is either a good or a bad thing," said Ichiro, after a moment's deliberation. He sounded strangely calm, given that he was matching Zuko step-for-step in mad intensity to get to the twelve-year-old.

Zuko shrugged. "Either way, we know where to find him now. We'll deal with what we find when we get there."

They arrived in a ruined city a little over a week later. Haru let out a whistle as he felt the stones. "Wow… this place is _ancient_."

"Yes," Zuko replied, shortly, and went in search of its residents.

Oddly enough, the first person he saw was Kouji — clothed in the garb of a Sun Warrior, with a bandage around his head, emerging from a cave with a stunned, haunted look on his face.

"Kouji?" he asked, not quite daring to hope he was recognized.

The boy turned to stare at him. "Do I… know you?"

"Only if you want to," the young monarch said, after a brief pause. "I mean, yes, you do, but you don't have to. I just... I needed to make sure you were all right." He was slurring slightly, fatigue and pain finally catching up with him now that he'd reached his goal and his single-minded adrenaline rush was fading.

"Don't mind him," said Haru cheerfully, coming up behind the Firelord. "He was really worried about you, Kouji."

The boy took a step back, confused. "I… I don't… I—"

"Kouji?" It was Ichiro.

Kouji froze, then flung himself at his older brother, crying incoherently.

Zuko said nothing, just watched the two of them, wobbling a little.

"Sit," ordered Haru as the preteen started babbling at Ichiro, saying how he could only remember bits and pieces, he didn't know how he'd gotten here, the last thing he remembered was a cave and a man…

Zuko shook his head — and then fell over completely.

Haru caught him. "Now what?" he asked. Zuko didn't answer, just started to pull away from Haru to push himself upright again, with very little success.

And then Kouji said in a tiny little voice, "Zuko…?"

"Yeah?" he mumbled.

There was a sudden small explosion at his waist — Kouji had released his brother to cling to Zuko. "I'm sorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry—"

"S'ok, don' worry 'bout it," Zuko assured him, definitely slurring now. "You got between them'n me, s'all that matters."

"Okay, Zu, bed rest. _Now_," Haru said, detaching Kouji and scooping the Firelord up in his arms.

"Pumme down, 'm fine," he mumbled.

"Lies."

"Not lying."

Haru ignored him, carrying Zuko away to find the nearest Sun Warrior and politely ask for a bed.

.

Meanwhile, Kouji went back to the chores he'd been given while the Sun Warriors looked after him — namely, feeding the baby dragons. More of his memories had returned — specifically, his memories of that hellish night when he had been triggered and made to lead the Firelord into a trap.

The black dragon looked up at him and crooned.

"They'll kill me if I go back," he whispered to her. "What I did was treason…"

She snorted.

"Well, no, _he_ wouldn't…"

She tilted her head, giving him a knowingly exasperated look.

"So instead they lock me in prison like… like…" Kouji groped for what he'd been trying to think of, but the memory eluded him.

She considered this for a moment, then crooned again.

"I _betrayed_ him. There's no getting around that."

She nuzzled him.

"But I still…"

She nudged him again.

Kouji was silent for a long moment.

She waited.

"He… I haven't seen him since he collapsed…"

She rolled her eyes.

Kouji sighed. "I guess I kinda have to, don't I."

She nodded.

Wincing, the boy slid down the wall of the nestling cave and scratched her behind the ears. She crooned and nuzzled up against him, and Kouji smiled sadly, turning all his attention to her. He was spared having to search for Zuko when, several hours later, the monarch found him. "Kouji?"

The twelve-year-old had been dozing with the black dragonet in his lap; hearing Zuko, he jerked awake. "Y-yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier," Zuko started, then paused.

"You were _exhausted_," Kouji said softly.

"...Not so bad as all that. Really." He was lying through his teeth and they both knew it.

The boy sighed and gently stroked the dragonet's head. Zuko watched the pair of them, unsure what to say next. Finally, Kouji blurted, "What's gonna happen to me?"

"...If you come back with me, you'll be watched, to make sure you're not triggered again, and to make sure no one can get to you any other way, either."

Kouji blinked. "Th-that's it?"

Zuko nodded. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"But I led you into a _trap_!" the boy wailed.

"Not by choice," Zuko reminded him. "Look, forget that. There's only one thing I need to know. Would you ever intentionally do anything to harm me, my uncle, Song...I'm sure you can come up with a good list of the people I mean?"

Kouji shook his head vigorously, looking horrified at the very thought.

"See?"

"But what if they get to me again?" Kouji demanded. "I don't even know how they got me the _first_ time!"

Zuko was silent for a long moment. "A few months before you came to the palace, the Dai Li managed to seize me off of the grounds. I still don't know how much of their conditioning stuck. So, yeah, you could be triggered again. But maybe I can be triggered, too." He shrugged, concealed a wince when his shoulder protested, and continued. "You're worth the risk, little brother."

Kouji froze and stared up at the Firelord. _Little brother? Did he just…? Does he really mean…?_

Zuko was watching him, waiting for his response. When it didn't come, he started talking again, as if aware that he was probably just digging himself a deeper hole, the way he always did. "You don't have to come back if you don't want to. But I'd like it if you did."

Gently, Kouji moved aside the dragon in his lap. Once he was clear, he launched himself at Zuko, holding the Firelord tightly around the waist and burying his face in the teen's shirt. Zuko, after a brief initial moment of startlement, hesitantly and painfully hugged back.

"I'll go back," whispered Kouji. "I can't leave you again… _niisan_." (1)

"Okay," Zuko said, relieved. "We'll get going as soon as you're ready." And he knew damn well Haru and Ichiro would argue, but if they tried, he would tell them exactly where they could shove their objections. He was _fine_, dammit.

...At least until he got home and his mother and fiancée started yelling.

Kouji let go reluctantly. "Okay."

"So, just let me know."

Before Kouji could respond, the black dragonling woke up, and curled herself around the boy's shoulders in a remarkably possessive manner.

"I think she wants to come with you," Zuko said.

"Wh-wh-what?" stammered the boy.

The dragonling crooned in agreement, licking Kouji's ear.

"I-I-I can't take her with me— the Sun Warriors are try-trying to repopulate the dragons, it wouldn't be right—"

"You two bonded. She won't breed now, anyways," a Sun Warrior said, coming up unexpectedly behind them.

Zuko jumped, on instinct reached for a pair of swords he no longer carried, cringed a little, remembering the last time he'd used them, and, very quietly, said, "Please don't jump out at me from nowhere, sir."

The Sun Warrior bowed to the Firelord. "I apologize, Lord Zuko." He then turned to Kouji. "You and this lovely lady bonded, and we can't change that. You're stuck with her forever. If you leave, she will follow."

Kouji's grey eyes were wide. "We bonded? How? _When_?"

"We don't really know how it happens," the Sun Warrior admitted, "but some dragons bond other dragons, some bond humans, some don't bond at all." He shrugged. "As for when...well, we don't really know that, either."

"Oh." Kouji glanced up at the dragon around his shoulders. "Guess I should name you then, huh, girl?"

She nuzzled him.

"How about… Qiang?"

She crooned a little and licked his ear.

Kouji couldn't help but laugh. Suddenly, things were looking up.

Even Zuko almost smiled.

* * *

The journey home was unremarkable. Zuko was still insistent on setting a faster pace than he could really handle — now that Kouji was safely recovered, he seemed to remember all of the many pressing responsibilities he'd left behind, and seemed determined to get back and fulfill them as soon as possible. However, Kouji seemed to need to travel at a slower pace than what Zuko wanted — or at least that's what Haru said, and the younger boy was backing him up. And so Zuko impatiently stuck to the pace they set.

The same thing would happen at night — Zuko would want to keep going until Kouji confessed to being tired, and then the Firelord would gracelessly cave in,

Almost every night, Zuko jerked awake after a while, coming out of his habitual nightmares. One of those nights, Kouji was trembling against Qiang, utterly silent. Zuko, frowning, dragged himself over to the younger boy and rested his hand on his shoulder. Kouji made a mewling whimper, but then quieted, his troubled face smoothing out into calmness. The Firelord breathed a sigh of relief, then sagged against a nearby tree to keep watch and make sure Kouji didn't have another nightmare.

"They had him picked out from the start, you know." It was Haru.

"Didn't know that," he said, wearily. "Thanks for telling."

"The General has the paperwork involved." Haru paused.

"Mmhmm. Good."

"Good and bad. The good is that it completely absolves the poor kid."

"Yep."

"The bad is that it implicates his parents."

"Great," muttered Zuko after a pause.

Haru ran a hand through his hair. "His father essentially sold him to the Dai Li."

Zuko made a very angry noise and started to launch to his feet; the earthbender caught him. "_Down_, Zuko. The general already knows. He's taking care of it. Ichiro'll probably be given custody of Yui, since Kouji's already your ward."

Zuko grudgingly sank to the ground. "Right."

"Ichiro knows about this," the earthbender went on. "Kouji and Yui _do not_."

"I won't tell them until one of them asks."

Haru nodded, and sighed. "There's just one thing we don't know."

"What?" Zuko asked.

"Who's backing it."

"Or any of these Dai Li messes that've cropped up in the last year or so." Zuko ran his hand through his hair. _Well, I thought I was going to die during the war. Guess I didn't gain that much time by surviving after all_.

"And nobody's seen their director since Ba Sing Se," Haru added with an annoyed snort.

"…And my sister is never going to confirm whether or not she killed him. Dammit," swore the Firelord.

"Of course not. That would make it _easy_," said Haru.

"'Zactly."

The earthbender sighed, then paused. "At least there's one thing saving that kid."

"Oh?" Zuko asked curiously.

Haru glanced at him. "Do you think the Dai Li would have just had him lead you to a trap if they'd known he was an _earth_bender?"

Zuko was silent for a very long moment. "Oh."

The older man blinked. "You didn't know?"

"Not 'til he used it defending me. And… it didn't really… I wasn't… man, I need to pay more attention."

"You were a little pre-occupied trying not to die," Haru pointed out kindly, though his face and voice clearly stated, _yeah, you really _do_ need to pay more attention_.

_And that's another problem, it shouldn't've taken so much of my attention, I should be better than that_. "Mm."

Kouji rolled over and nestled closer to his dragon. "Yui…"

Zuko watched him some more, but the twelve-year-old made no more outburst.

"Also," said Haru quietly, "the only people who know Kouji was compromised are those of us here, Yui, and the General."

"No need for anyone else to know it, then," mused the Firelord.

Haru nodded, and Zuko fell silent, watching the boy sleep. At dawn, Haru woke Ichiro; by unspoken agreement, the three young men let Kouji sleep himself out.

.

The four of them managed to reach the capital relatively intact — or, at least, sustaining no further injuries. Once there, Ichiro went to talk to his sister, Zuko fled to his study to catch up, and Haru took Kouji (and Qiang) to see the General.

"Welcome back, Kouji," was all Iroh said.

Just to hear those words, honestly spoken and truly meant, without any hint of censure at all, was enough to get Kouji in tears again — even if his only memories of the old man were scattered and hard to keep hold of.

"Kouji's having some memory issues," explained Haru. "He hit his head."

Iroh nodded, and offered the boy a hug. After a moment's hesitation, he moved into the offered embrace, and the tears spilled over. The old man murmured soothing noises, stroking his hair. In short order, Kouji had cried himself out and retreated a few steps, wiping his eyes. "Th…thank you," he whispered.

"You're welcome."

Haru gave Iroh a questioning look over Kouji's head: _His memory is spotty. How are you going to debrief him?_

Iroh shrugged one shoulder. _One step at a time_.

The older earthbender nodded. _I'll get him to his room, then_.

Iroh nodded and released the boy.

"C'mon, kid," said Haru kindly. "You remember where you room is? No? I'll take you there."

* * *

Zuko didn't manage to find his way outside to meet up with Song until the next afternoon — he'd worked at his desk until he passed out that first night, and woken up late and had to scramble to catch up as a result.

He had a feeling she wasn't going to be very happy with him.

Unsurprisingly, she was out by the turtleduck pond, kneeling in front of it and feeding some of the half-grown ones.

"Hello," he said, softly, coming up behind her.

"Hello," was the cool response. She didn't turn, didn't look up, gave no indication other than by speaking that she was even aware of his presence.

_Yep. She's mad at me_.

"I'm back," he said, after an awkward silence.

"Are you?"

_Very_ mad.

"Yeah. With Kouji." He wobbled a little. _Dammit, should be more recovered than that_.

Now some emotion entered her voice. "How is he?"

"Really upset. And still has a lot of holes in his memory."

"His memory?" Now she looked up at him, her concern for the boy overriding her anger at Zuko. "Sit down. What happened to his memory?"

He sat. "He fell and hit his head."

Song's eyes went wide. "Oh, spirits…"

"He's recovering it in bits and pieces, though," Zuko assured her.

She nodded. "That sounds normal. Knocks on the head can be dangerously unpredictable."

"Right," he murmured.

Song very carefully avoided telling Zuko that the trauma could well have killed the boy. "I'm glad you found him," she said instead.

"Me, too," he said, fervently.

Song managed to keep Zuko there for a little over an hour, asking him about Kouji and the details of the trip. Anger with her unofficial fiancé aside, he needed the rest and this was the best way to do it.

Zuko readily answered all her questions, completely unaware of her ulterior motive, and at the end of that hour, she reluctantly let him return back to work. She would read him the riot act later. He was a little nervous that it hadn't happened yet — the delay just made him dread it more. When it finally arrived after dinner that night — and she had made _certain_ he ate — the lecture was loud, long, and basically boiled down that, before he hared off after his brother-of-heart, he needed to _get healed_ and _tell somebody where he was going_.

He had very little to say in his own defence, so he just listened and took his punishment. When Song finally fell silent, she was glaring at him angrily and had tears in her eyes.

"Song…" He hesitantly reached out for her. She didn't respond, but she didn't knock his hand away, either. "You're crying."

"That's because I was _worried_ about you, you idiot!" she exclaimed, the tears spilling over now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, brushing away her tears.

"I thought I'd lost you," was the quiet response.

He awkwardly hugged her, and she leaned into his embrace, openly weeping now.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again.

"Don't do it again," she ordered him roughly, her voice muffled because she'd buried her face in his shoulder.

"I won't run off without telling you," he promised.

"Good."

He wished he could promise that he wouldn't scare her like that again, but…

Too many people wanted him dead.

* * *

Most people in the palace seemed to have completely forgotten that Yì Suì lived there — something that suited him quite nicely. He spent most of his time hiding in his room, but would occasionally curl up in an unused corner of the library.

Now literate, he'd started dabbling in writing poetry — something he kept very, very secret, not even showing Song or Ursa his efforts.

Today he was in the library.

He'd been in there for three hours or so, and then Kouji wandered in, with Qiang trailing after him. He didn't notice, having drifted off to sleep about twenty minutes before.

Kouji stopped, staring hard at the boy in the chair. _I… know him_, the younger boy thought. _But where from? How? What's his name?_ These gaps in his memory were seriously annoying him.

As Kouji came close, the smaller boy twitched a little, whimpering faintly.

That was even more familiar. The younger boy was _positive_ he knew the white-clad boy now.

Scarcely had he come to this conclusion when, with a faint gasp, the other one jerked awake.

There! A name! Kouji tried to say it before it fled into the darkness of his hidden memories. "Yì… Yì Suì?"

The smaller boy looked up. "K-kouji, y-you're back…"

"Yeah." Kouji smiled at him, even though he couldn't remember when last he'd seen Yì Suì — or maybe the last meeting he remembered _had_ been the last time? He still couldn't remember how he'd got from the palace to the Sun Warriors.

"I'm g-glad…" Yì Suì's eyes then fell on the dragonling following him, and his eyes lit up.

Kouji noticed and grinned. "Yì Suì, this is Qiang. Qiang, c'mere and meet Yì Suì."

The dragon crooned and wandered over to nuzzle the smaller boy. Yì Suì actually smiled when he hesitantly reached out to pat her. Kouji laughed and settled down to watch boy and dragon interacting — Qiang seemed more than happy to play with the smaller human, and was uncommonly gentle with him.

"Oh, Yì Suì?" said Kouji after a few minutes.

"Y-yeah?" the smaller boy asked, looking up from the dragon.

"I just wanted to warn you… while I was away, I kinda hit my head." He winced. "For awhile, I didn't remember _anything_, and I'm still recovering. So I might not… remember everything we've ever done."

An idea occurred to Kouji, and he rose to his feet. "I have to go take care of something. Would you mind if I left Qiang here?"

"N-no," Yì Suì replied, rather quickly. Qiang made a rather amused crooning noise, then a more thoughtful one.

"You're right," Kouji told her, and then left to find the General. Hopefully the old man would only be amused by his request.

The General greeted him with a smile once Kouji was in his office. "Good afternoon."

"Afternoon," Kouji replied. "Um. You know those watchers you've got on me?"

"Yes, what about them?" Iroh, upon assigning the guards, had taken care to tell Kouji that they were there as much to protect him from being kidnapped and used against Zuko as they were there to prevent his being triggered again.

The boy blushed red; apparently the memory loss hadn't affected _that_ part of him, anyway. "I was wondering if I could…. get girls instead?"

The old man arched an eyebrow. "I assumed you'd prefer men."

"I do. I mean, I did. But…"

The General suddenly understood. "You want to spend time with Yì Suì, and are afraid your guards will upset him."

Kouji nodded vigorously.

"I'll make the arrangements," Iroh promised.

"Thank you, general," the boy said, bowing.

"You're welcome," he replied warmly.

Kouji grinned, then flitted back off to the library. Yì Suì was right where he'd left him, scratching Qiang in the itchy place right behind her left ear. "Hey," the twelve-year-old greeted them both.

"H-hello," Yì Suì replied, surprisingly cheerfully.

The younger boy considered this startling cheeriness, and got another idea. "Hey, Yì Suì, could you do me a big favour?"

"Wh-what is it?" the smaller boy asked.

"I'm gonna have to start working again tomorrow," Kouji explained, "and I won't be able to give Qiang the kind of attention she needs. Could you do it for me?"

"S-sure!"

"Thanks," said the younger, mentally dancing. "I _really_ appreciate it."

"W-welcome," Yì Suì said, with a bigger-than-usual shaky smile.

Sitting down again, Kouji began telling Yì Suì how to take care of the little dragon. Yì Suì snatched one of his rejected verses and scribbled down the instructions on the back of the page. "If you want," Kouji suggested afterwards, "I can leave you two to get further acquainted and come get her later."

"O-okay," Yì Suì said. "Wh-whatever y-you like…"

"Well, you do seem to get along." And Kouji grinned at him.

Yì Suì smiled back, and Qiang crooned.

"There isn't a lot I can do about it," Kouji pointed out to her. She sighed and flicked her tail at him, and he scratched her and slipped away.

* * *

(1) _niisan_ — a Japanese word that is a shortened from of _oniisan_, or 'elder brother'. Puck chose to utilise this term simply because there is no simple English equivalent and repeatedly saying "big brother" just sounds stupid. Mokuba.


	10. Chapter 10

Haru was in a better mood than anyone in the palace might have suspected. It had been a month since Zuko had reappeared from wherever he'd vanished to, and _everyone_ knew that afterwards, the Dragon of the West had ordered the Iron Scorpion, as several had begun calling the earthbender, off the Dai Li hunt.

Ty Lee snuck up behind him (futile though she knew the gesture was, it was still fun to try) in the garden and slid her hands over his eyes. "Guess who."

"Even if I hadn't felt you coming, Ty Lee," the tall earthbender replied, "I can tell your voice easy."

"I know," she said, brightly.

He turned around and kissed her. "Happy birthday, love," he said when he pulled back.

"Thanks," she said, grinning.

Slipping his hands around her shoulders, Haru asked, "Anything special you want to do tonight?"

"Mm…" She considered for a long moment, then a small, somewhat sly smile spread across her face. "Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you."

"Really? What?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Well, I'm sixteen now…" She paused a moment, then knelt. "Will you marry me?"

Haru's jaw dropped open, and he stared at her in shock.

She shifted her weight a little, the look on his face making her rather nervous.

And then he started to laugh. Before she could get too mad, he managed to get out, "Not— laughing at— you—" He reached into his overshirt while trying to calm down, removing a gold armband. Inset in it was the emblem of the Fire Nation, picked out in rose quartz.

Her eyes widened a little. "You were planning to — " Then she started laughing, pulling out her own armband, the one she'd had made for him — an Earth Kingdom emblem, made of beryls, set in silver.

Haru pulled her back to him and kissed her deeply, a kiss she returned.

Several minutes later, Haru asked, "So, that's a yes on both parts, then?"

"I guess so."

"Just checking," and he kissed her again.

After several more long minutes of this, Ty Lee asked, "So, who do we want to tell first?"

Haru coughed. "Um. Maybe Sparky?"

She shook her head. "He's busy tonight, emergency meeting. Those floods, remember?"

"Ah, right. How about the General, then?"

"Okay!"

Haru did stop before they went to seek Iroh, gently fastening the bracer he'd had made for his now-fiancée around her wrist. She grinned up at him, and fastened the one she'd had made for him on his arm. After stealing another kiss, they made their way to Iroh's office together.

"Good evening," the old man said, smiling up at them. "You two seem very happy."

"Well, we have something to tell you, General," replied Haru.

"Oh?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"We got engaged!" Ty Lee bubbled.

The earthbender nodded, looping an arm around her shoulders and not-incidentally displaying the armband she'd made for him in the process.

"That's wonderful! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, sir," said Haru, smiling.

Ty Lee was grinning like an idiot. "Thank you."

"Any word on the citizenship yet, general?" the earthbender asked then. "I think the urgency just doubled." He smiled at his fiancée.

"It's being fast-tracked, but there's only so much red tape he can eliminate," Iroh said.

"Understood," said Haru cheerfully.

"With any luck, everything will be official by midwinter."

"Excellent. That will give us time to discuss the dates and everything." He considered. "Also to tell our parents."

"Hopefully dad won't flip out again," Ty Lee said, biting her lip.

"Well, since I'm marrying you now rather than being caught in bed with you…," Haru pointed out. But he, too, sounded uncertain.

"Zuzu will clear it up again," she finally said. "He managed to hold him back before…"

"We'll be fine, love," Haru said softly.

"'Course we will."

He kissed her softly, made his bows to the General, and led Ty Lee out.

"Now who do we tell?" she asked, eager to share her news.

"Song?" Haru suggested after a moment.

"Okay!" Ty Lee grabbed his hand and dragged him to find Zuko's girlfriend.

The young doctor was just coming off her shift in the infirmary when they found her.

"Song!" Ty Lee cried and promptly threw her arms around her friend. "Guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat?"

"What?" asked the older girl, laughing.

"We got engaged!"

"That's _great_!" cried Song, hugging Ty Lee tightly. "Congratulations!"

The younger girl laughed delightedly and hugged back. "We just got engaged like a half hour ago, first I proposed and then Haru had been planning to also, and then we were going to go tell Zuzu but those floods and so we couldn't get to him so we went to the General and now to you and—"

"Slow down, love," Haru said. "Breathe a bit."

"Right. Right, breathing is good."

Song giggled, then looked thoughtful. "I wonder if I could talk Zuko into a double-wedding… that'd be fun, don't you think?"

"Doesn't he have to officially propose first?" Ty Lee pointed out. She knew about the unofficial proposal — she was one of the few who did, given that it had never actually been announced.

"I live in hope," Song replied, sighing.

Ty Lee hugged her. "He will soon, I'm sure."

"Unless he keeps forgetting. Like he did with Kouji."

"Get someone to remind him, then," the younger girl suggested.

Song flushed. "Like who?"

"I dunno," Ty Lee said. The doctor sighed, a sound echoed by the acrobat. "How's he doing, by the way?" the younger girl asked then.

"Physically, he's completely recovered," Song answered. "Mentally… well, he worries about Kouji a lot."

Ty Lee nodded. "Yeah…"

"On the other hand, Kouji's sibs are here now. Ichiro's trying to get into the palace guard, since Iroh expressly forbade him to go with the party sent to arrest the parents." Song sounded uncertain; Ty Lee knew that her friend hadn't entirely agreed with Iroh's decision.

Haru sighed. "Ichiro won't get in the guard. He's certainly good enough for it, but…"

"Yeah," Ty Lee agreed. "Too risky. If one sibling was compromised…"

"I guess we'll see what happens," Song murmured, then hugged Ty Lee again.

"Yeah." Ty Lee hugged back. "Seriously, get someone to remind Zuzu about proposing officially. Or he _will_ keep forgetting for weeks and weeks…"

"I could do it," Haru volunteered.

"Okay!"

"Nicely, Angelface," said Song quickly.

"Am I ever _not_ nice to Lord Sparky?" Haru asked, the very picture of innocence.

Song lifted one eyebrow. "Yes."

"Only sometimes," Ty Lee said, leaping to her fiancé's defence.

Haru kissed the top of her head before grinning at the doctor. "I'll play nice, mommy."

Ty Lee rolled her eyes. "Of course he will."

* * *

Zuko was asleep at his desk.

This was not an unusual occurrence — he often worked late in the evenings, and simply passed out there. Unfortunately, this meant pain in the mornings, but he felt it was worth it. Pain didn't bother him.

Well, not much. It mostly got very irritating, having to fight through it constantly.

"You need to stop doing that." Kouji's voice cut through his sleep.

"Stop doing what?" he asked, groggy.

"Sleeping at your desk. It's bad for you."

Zuko stretched, and muttered something about not doing it on purpose, and Kouji simply stared at him.

"You're giving me that look again," the Firelord commented.

"Yes," was the calm reply.

"Why are you giving me that look again?"

"Because," Kouji said, "you only fall asleep at your desk accidentally because you refuse to go to bed at a normal hour."

"What you and Mom and Song call 'normal' is too early," the Firelord replied defensively.

"Not according to the rest of the world, Zuko."

"Yes, well, according to me."

"How in the world do you plan on having an heir if you work all the time?" Kouji demanded, though his face turned red at even the vaguest allusion to Adult Activities.

"I'll figure it out," Zuko shot back. "Once Song and—" He paused. "…I need to officially propose to her."

"…you haven't _yet_?"

"Well, I mean, I sort of asked her a while ago, I just never…y'know…"

"Zuko, it's been almost two months since you turned eighteen!" the boy exclaimed.

"I know that, I just…keep forgetting." Now he looked kind of sheepish.

Kouji stared at him again.

"I'll do it soon."

"Of course you will." The earthbender sounded as though he expected this to happen at some point the following century.

"I will! I just need to—" He broke off. "…I've never taken you to the Vault, have I."

Kouji looked confused. "The Vault?"

"Yes, the Vault." Zuko glanced at a timepiece, then at the mountain of paperwork on his desk, then sighed. "Come on, let's go."

Bewildered, the preteen followed.

The Firelord led him down through the palace, to a large metal door, which he opened. Inside was a vast collection of treasures of various sorts — gold, jewels, works of art, texts…

"Welcome to the Vault," he said. "Feel free to look around and pick something out, if any of it appeals to you." That being said, he went deeper in, seemingly looking for something specific.

Still confused, Kouji began rooting around, drawn to the variety of shiny things in there. After several minutes, he found a slim necklace with a pendant made of stone he didn't recognise and decided this would be what he took. Yui was sure to love it.

"Hah! Found it!" Zuko cried from the other side of the room.

"What did you find?" Kouji asked, making his way there.

"This." The teenager held up a beautiful box, of mahogany, with a mother-of-pearl panel on the lid, delicately carved to depict a willow tree.

Kouji's eyes went wide. "Wow…"

Zuko then opened the box, to reveal a set of magnificent pearl jewellery — four rings, six bracelets, two necklaces, and a headdress. "These were my grandmother's. I'm going to loan them to Song for her lifetime — they were left to me, but because of some stupid restriction in her will, they can't be _owned_ by anyone not of her bloodline."

"They're beautiful," the boy breathed.

"D'you think they're appropriate? I mean, for the engagement? Or should I pick something else?"

Kouji glanced up at Zuko and decided not to point out that he was probably not the best judge of what was appropriate for one's fiancée. "Yeah, I think so."

Zuko almost smiled. "Perfect." He shut the box. "I'll give them to her this afternoon."

"If you forget, I'll kick you," Kouji promised him.

"I'll keep that in mind," the Firelord said, wryly.

* * *

Song turned out to be very hard to track down that afternoon. The first place Zuko checked was the turtleduck pond, since they _always_ met there, but Song was not there. He checked the infirmary next, only to discover that she'd gone to see Yì Suì. Heading to the room she shared with the young man provided only a curious dragonet and a comment from the guard there that Song had gone off in the direction of the library, which was where he finally found her looking at some medical scrolls.

"Song?" he said, coming up behind her.

Carefully, she put the scroll back, then turned to smile at him. "Hello, Zuko."

He was holding the box behind his back. "How's your day been?"

"Interesting," Song said with a sigh. "Yì Suì has another cold. He's sick far too much."

"Is he going to be all right?" the Firelord asked, briefly sidetracked.

She nodded. "It _is_ only a cold," she pointed out. "I was just trying to see if there were other conditions that the constant illnesses might be heralding."

"Ah. Well, I wouldn't know." He frowned a little. "Maybe you could ask Mom?"

"I probably will," she sighed.

Zuko nodded. "All right."

Song ran a hand through her hair — she'd very recently taken to wearing it loose when she wasn't working — and sighed, then smiled at him again. "Did you need something?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh? What about?"

Here he hesitated, the speech he'd had planned for months flying out of his head.

She blinked. "Zuko?"

"I…" He trailed off. "…I completely forgot the way I was going to say this."

She kissed him. "So improvise." An impish smile: "You're good at that."

He flushed. "Well…I mean, I want to make sure I do this right."

Song laughed lightly. "I think you're already making a good start."

He coloured a little further. "Um. Well, what I wanted to ask was… I… My grandmother left me these. And I can't _give_ them to you, her will says they have to be owned by someone in her bloodline, but… I mean… if you were… I could loan them to you. For your lifetime. Which really amounts to the same thing, it's just wording it differently. But — "

"What are they?" was the soft question that cut through his babbling.

"Oh, right." He pulled the box out from behind his back and held it out to her.

Curious, Song accepted it, her brown eyes wide. The box itself was certainly worth almost as much as her home back in the Earth Kingdom. On opening it to see the array of jewellery inside, her jaw dropped.

"If you marry me, they're yours," he whispered.

Very carefully, Song closed the box and set it on a shelf. As she slipped her arms around him, she said, "I'd marry you even without them," before kissing him.

He relaxed, and kissed back. After a few moments, Zuko pulled back. "I think we should announce tonight." _Because if we wait I might get blown up again and then we won't for another two months_.

Song nodded. "All right." And then she paused. "How are these things announced, anyway?"

"I actually don't know," Zuko admitted after a pause. "I need to ask Mom or Uncle about that. I never really paid much attention when they tried to teach me protocol."

The young doctor slipped her hand in his. "Maybe we should ask them together."

"All right," he agreed.

Song smiled up at him. "Would you rather ask General Iroh, or Lady Ursa?"

He considered. "Depends. Who do you think we should tell first?"

"I don't know," the girl answered softly.

"Me, neither."

"Well, who's closer?"

"Dunno, depends where Mom is right now."

"Then let's start to look," replied Song.

"All right," he said. squeezing her hand lightly.

She squeezed back, carefully taking the box of pearls in her other arm, and led Zuko out of the library. They found Ursa not long after, in her storeroom.

"Lady Ursa?" Song asked, slightly nervous.

She looked up. "Hello," she said, smiling.

The doctor glanced up at her fiancé, uncertain how to word this.

"We…um…well, we need to know how to…announce."

"Yes," Song agreed.

"…Announce what?" Judging by the look on the dowager princess's face, she knew exactly what, but was waiting for explicit confirmation.

"We got engaged," Zuko replied.

Song smiled happily, leaning into the Firelord.

Ursa smiled just as wide. "That's wonderful!"

"But neither of us really know how to announce it," the doctor said.

"Ah, right. Well, when were you planning on announcing?"

"Tonight, if at all possible," Zuko answered.

"We figured it was best to do it very soon," Song added.

Ursa nodded. "No reason to put it off." She then gave them a brief overview of the protocol involved. Both Song and Zuko paid strict attention, one perhaps more so than the other.

"Thanks, Mom," Zuko said, when she was done.

"No problem."

Song snuck a kiss from her fiancé, then mused, "We ought to let the General know before the official announcement."

"Yeah, probably," he agreed.

"Oh, but before we go—" Song turned back to Ursa and explained her worry about Yì Suì.

Ursa frowned. "I can't think of anything off the top of my head…"

"You'll let me know if you do?"

"Of course."

"Thank you," Song said, relieved.

"You're welcome," Ursa said with a small smile, and Zuko and Song made their way to the general's office. Iroh was clearly delighted to hear their news, which relieved Song. She knew the old man well by now, but there had been a small, doubting part of her that wondered if the fabled Dragon of the West would consider a peasant doctor from the Earth Kingdom good enough for his nephew.

"Congratulations," he said, grinning. "You're announcing tonight?"

Zuko nodded. "Didn't want to risk waiting."

"Best to do it now, before something urgent comes up," Song commented.

Iroh nodded, and gave his nephew a searching look. Zuko shrugged. "It'll be a surprise, I don't think we need to worry. But go ahead, better safe than sorry."

"Yes," agreed his fiancée, stealing another kiss from him.

Zuko was more than happy to kiss her back.

* * *

That evening, in a highly unusual occurrence, both Zuko and Song dined with the court. Zuko being there was an unusual enough event, but for the foreign doctor to join him there? Finally, after he felt the tension had gotten plenty high enough, Zuko rose from his seat to make his announcement.

For a moment, there was stunned silence.

Then a girl sitting near the back of the hall, the Lady Zhan, who was a mite obsessed with her Firelord, ran out. And then the dam broke.

Worried, Song looked up at Zuko, ignoring the chatter for the time being. He squeezed her hand, trying to let her know not to worry. It was a little late for that, but she managed a smile for him anyway — a smile that widened slightly when she overheard one of Zuko's guards muttering, "You'd think they'd remember that if it wasn't for her, he'd be dead."

"Not the kind of thing they remember. Besides, half of them think I'm unkillable," Zuko muttered back.

"Ingrates," was the answer. "I know for a fact that a full third of them have either been treated by her, or had children treated by her."

"I know."

The guard fell silent after that, and Song shook her head. "I was expecting this," she told Zuko.

"So was I. But I was hoping they'd be a little more mature," muttered the Firelord.

The chatty guard — Li Shang, Song remembered, that was his name — snorted.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't've," Zuko said, a little wryly.

"Never would have pegged you for an optimist, my lord," was the smart reply.

"True, it's new for me. I'm not sure I like it."

Song laughed. "I like it." She smiled up at Zuko.

He almost-smiled back at her. "All right then."

The fallout over the next several days was not pretty — the noble houses, particularly Lady Zhan's, were furious that Zuko had not chosen a bride from among them, and the Firelord spent most of his time dealing with it. As a result of this, he had almost no time to spend with his fiancée, and was once again going dangerously short on food and sleep.

Kouji did what he could to alleviate Zuko's lack of food, at least, catching the Firelord several times a day and talking him into eating at least a few bites of whatever he was carrying with him.

The fallout being mostly dealt with, they then had to turn to planning the wedding itself.

This, too, was an _enormous_ task. It was the first truly magnificent event since the end of the war, to say nothing of Zuko's near-legendary status, and the fact that he was marrying a woman from the Earth Kingdom.

Nobody was truly surprised when Kouji, by now promoted to Zuko's personal assistant, wound up becoming involved with the plans, along with Song and Ty Lee, as the women still hoped for a double-wedding. Zuko wasn't going to object — he tried to help out with the plans as often as possible, cutting back a few more hours of sleep to do so.

Haru tried to help once or twice, but found himself in over his head. It didn't help that he wasn't looking forward to the reaction from Ty Lee's family once people got past _Zuko's_ engagement.

The reaction, when it came, was… not quite as explosive as he'd feared, given her father's reaction to learning of their involvement in the first place. Haru was faced with cold disapproval from her older sisters, avid interest from her younger sisters, tightly-reined anger from her father, and very little reaction from her mother, who seemed to have entirely given up on her middle daughter becoming Respectable.

Much to the earthbender's relief, his parents arrived in the Fire Nation not long after, and both of them, at least, seemed to approve — both of his choice in bride, and his choice to remain there. Ty Lee was very polite with his parents, nervous about resentment carried over from the war.

What little there was (on the part of Haru's mother) vanished very quickly when she saw how happy her son was with the little acrobat. His father, Tyro, seemed very amused, and even commented in her hearing that it was a relief to know Haru would marry someone able to keep him in line.

Upon hearing that, the young noblewoman relaxed and threw herself even more eagerly into the plans, which were progressing nicely with aid from Kouji.

Finally, in the morning of the day when the seasons changed from spring to summer, Song and Zuko and Ty Lee and Haru were wed.

The ceremony itself was brief. The reception was _endless_.

Somehow, Haru and Ty Lee managed to sneak away after a mere two hours. Song and Zuko were not so lucky. After five hours, Qiang helpfully caused a distraction to enable the royal couple to flee. Song had even, after much argument, persuaded Zuko to go away for a couple days for a honeymoon.

She'd also managed to find all the paperwork he tried to sneak along and passed it to Ursa to replace in his study.

He didn't even notice it was gone.


End file.
